Drabbles
by sankontesu
Summary: All of my Inuyasha drabbles in one. Mostly InuKag. (Updated: Chapter 21- Sleeping.) [Rated M as a blanket rating, but most aren't NSFW]
1. Adromeda

A/N: I literally can't tell you why I wrote this drabble. All I ever write are drabbles. If you read this, you'll finish it in 4.43 minutes.

 _Summary: Kagome talks about stars and stuff._

 _Rated: K_

 **Adromeda**

A handful of times, Kagome as a teenager, wandered into the forest in search for her half-demon companion, and she would find him on a branch above her. Eyes closed, ears aware and nature cradling him in her emerald bosom, with the sunlight speckled all around him like day-time fireflies. A mythical creature in all his right, too wild, too beautiful, too rare. If she were any good with a brush, she would have painted him just like this.

He was the most graceful creature in all the land.

"Do you miss it?" She had asked him once while nervously combing a piece of matted hair near her neck. That stars were out tonight with no shame, naked and stunning against the canvas of a midnight sky, but her eyes were on him.

"Miss what?" He sighed, although she couldn't identify whether it was an annoyed sigh or a relaxed sigh.

"Being out here?"

"We're out here right now…"

"No, I mean-" She rolled her eyes and leaned up on her elbows from where they were laying down on the hilltop to peer back up at the sky. "Living out here. Do you miss it?" She implored again, avoiding eye contact.

"No."

Kagome felt a sense of relief, albeit a little selfish too. Her posture visibly relaxed and another question slipped out her mouth, "Why?"

He didn't respond, merely starring at the back of her raven head, hands still behind his head, elbows and feet apart. After what Kagome felt was enough allotted time she twisted her shoulders and head to face him, a curious tilt to her eyebrows. _Well?_

But the answer lay there in his eyes, bare to anyone who wished to know the truth.

 _You know why,_ they said, with all the pure sincerity and adoration that came with the bluntness of that golden stare.

Kagome flashed him a sheepish grin and looked back up to the sky, after a minute pointing up with an index finger and excitedly tracing out a constellation. "That's Adromeda, right there."

Inuyasha twitched an ear, a signal for her to continue.

"It belongs to a galaxy far away from us. It's the farthest object visible to us with the naked eye." A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Can you see farther than that, Inuyasha?" Him being a half-demon and all.

A shrug, "I just see a shitload of stars."

Kagome rested a chin on her pulled up knee, "I guess we'll never know."

Without warning Inuyasha's grip yanked at the back of her white shirt and she was falling backwards with gravity. She gave a startled "yip" and then found herself settled in the cuddling side embrace of her husband.

His breath wisped above her head, the baritone in his voice running goosebumps along her arms, "Tell me about Adromeda."

She didn't know if it was that he liked listening to her babble, or if he was genuinely interested in the topic about stars, but he always asked to know more about the glistening lights in the sky.

So she definitely didn't know that a long time ago, a little boy sat comfortably in his mother's lap on a warm summer night, passing the time by forming images in the sky.

Kagome didn't know that the mother scratched behind her son's ears, softly saying with a smile, " _I wish we knew the stories stars tell."_

And years later, the son would learn.

"Well, she was a _beautiful_ princess-" Kagome began.


	2. Day of the Life of the InuKag

**Snippet in the Day of the Life of the Inukag**

 **Rated: T**

 **Summary: Title says it all.**

Being married had its merits, that is to say, if you were to sum up the days by accordance to how the nights ended; _hot…sweltering…paradise_ ….But overall, Kagome may have to admit that she was not a very good wife…or at least not the best one. There was pollen on everything. The food was always wrong, always too plain, or always too spicy, or always too dry. And the husband had a tendency to leave his home with wrinkled clothing due to her inability to properly iron out the fabric, with the few tools she could scrounge up in the feudal era. Kagome would often sigh, in grievance for the wonderful world of outlets and electricity and instant hot water. Inuyasha would frown in confusion and without delay correct her assumption that his life would be anything better than this. "What the hell are wrinkles and why shouldn't I have them?"

Kagome would sigh again.

She should've realized sooner that the lack of plummeting would ultimately result in long up-hill walks to a hot-spring, or waiting patiently for the water to heat up so she could quickly rinse herself clean at the backend of her little home. But the truth of the matter was that she hadn't even thought about it until the one morning she ran her fingers through her black terraces and found that she was in dire need for a wash. Turning to poke her husband's cheek, he scrunched his nose and popped open a single golden eye to acknowledge her.

"I need a bath."

A grunt answered her, and a lazy gesture to the pot in their make-shift kitchen. A pot. A _pot._

It would take weeks for Kagome to become accustomed to the idea of being without her blissful rain of heated water, in the future known as a shower. Sure, she did go maybe one or two weeks sleeping in the Feudal Era when they were on their Naruku hunting adventures, but even then they would often stop in a village that provided baths or a spring was never too far away. This was certainly a first.

Asking around the village did her no use; the women hardly ever bathed, and when they chose to it was with cold water, and for only a few fleeting seconds else they become overcome with sickness. Kagome approached Sango one morning after breakfast, in order to take her advice on the problem. The mother of three had her hands full still trying to feed her youngest son and exasperated as she was, she shot Kagome a strange glance, as if the answer was obvious.

"You get used to it, Kagome."

Kagome sighed and leaned her body back against the wall of her friend's home. No more words were said on the matter and she promptly got to work helping Sango dress the twins and get them ready for lessons on writing and reading. The distraction of being with her close friend and the children lifted her spirits and the problem with the water fell to the back of her mind.

"I wish I had been there…you know when they were born." Kagome said wistfully while the girls were wrapped in an adorable embrace, taking their daily nap. "I wish I could've been there for you."

Sango reached out to grasp Kagome's hand and squeezed. "You're here now."

"What the heck are you doing?"

Inuyasha's half-annoyed-half-questioning voice rung out onto their "porch" as Kagome had taken to calling it, and the girl in question didn't bother glancing at him as she was still set to work on the project at hand. "I'm trying to fast-forward a revolutionary idea," she said, attempting to link together two bamboo sticks, which from the looks of it were hollowed out. Inuyasha crouched down to her eye-level and peered at the plants, picking one up and holding it up to his eye to look through it like a telescope. Kagome saw him from the corner of her vision and huffed, snatching the bamboo and pulling it towards the other end of another stick. "Sorry, but these aren't for playing, I need them." Inuyasha made way to pick up another one, "All of them." She emphasized.

"Keh," he crossed his arms, "I wasn't playing with them."

She nodded continuing to pay more attention to her "revolutionary idea." The half-demon rolled his eyes, "Well if you need any of my help-"

"Oh perfect!" For the first time since that morning she turned her smiling face to look at him. His chest blossomed in this warm feeling that he attributed to the effect she had on him, "I need loads of it." Inuyasha got lost in her warm brown gaze for a second, and almost completely missed her comment. He cleared his throat and a wide smirk began to spread on his features.

Fangs flashing, "Alright wench, but you're gonna have to pay me for my services somehow."

Kagome quirked a suspicious eyebrow, her voice taking on a low purr, "Oh is that so?"

He felt his body gravitating towards her slowly, but not unintentionally, almost as if she were the pull that kept him tethered to the earth. It was at a point where she could feel his hot breath fan her lips. "I think I have a few services of my own I could supply you with, in gratitude of course." She tilted her head, a smirk of her own, full of something wanton and beautiful. Inuyasha couldn't miss the way her hair slightly fell on the right side of her face as she angled herself, and he wanted to freeze this moment, if only to keep the image of his wife, his _wife_ , locked in this look of longing.

"Well don't take too long, I've got lots of other things to do today." He said teasing as he crawled a clawed hand up her forearm, fingering the silk fabric of her garb.

Kagome pushed her nose into his, whispering, "Oh noo, that just won't do, I plan on taking a long, long time."

Inuyasha almost whined and was about to rain down hot ravishing desire upon her lips, until-

" **Inuyasha**! Help!"

"Inuyasha! **Quick** , a demon!"

The chorus of voices were those of the villagers and this time, Inuyasha couldn't help the whimper that went past his lips. Kagome held back a selfish groan of her own.

He had blinked and his wife was back to inspecting the poles, "Shoo, shoo," She said while waving one at him.

He growled as he straightened up and made to remove the offending demon from the outskirts of the forest.

As put out as they were for having their moment ruined, not for the first time _,_ by a demon, they at least harbored the same thought.

Which was,

They'd continue this, _in great detail_ , when he got back.


	3. No Kids

**One-shot**

 **Summary: In where Inuyasha doesn't want kids.**

 **Rated: M!**

She approached him like a careening wave into molten rock, a ferocious glint to her brown eyes and for not the first time in his life, Inuyasha inched back in sudden horror. She lashed out at him, her hands reaching into his shoulders, clawing their way into the fabric and pulling herself up on top of him, climbing him the way he would Goshinboku, forcing his hand in carrying her against his waist. One of her delicate _-violent, harsh, rough_ \- hands found its way to his jawline and traced her way down to his chin until she could pull his gaze to hers. He starred at her in an awe-bending silence.

"Inuyasha," She started, her voice clipped and low dripping onto him like heated droplets on a frozen surface, "I want your babies."

His gasp was captured by her lips, arresting him, caging him in the brace of her soft arms and the halo emblem of her raven locks, he tripped back holding her against him, thankfully laying against the cotton futon on their wooden floor.

Then she was on him like a rampant tide of unyielding kisses, nipping at the corner junction where his neck met his shoulder, sweeping down to leave open-mouthed kisses on the incline of his chest towards the decline of his waist and he shuddered something fierce, carefully raking his fingers through her hair to bring her back to eye-level with him. This choice she was making…he couldn't… _he wouldn't_

' _And why not? Why can't we be just as happy as them.' She had accused, her voice saturating the forest with venom._

' _I am happy Kagome!' He bellowed, the birds in the trees fleeting at the aggression in his tone. He cursed jamming his fist into the first trunk he could lay his eyes on._

' _Oh yeah, hit a few more trees, that'll make this better.'_

' _Shut up!'_

' _You shut up! You always do this to yourself. First it was, 'Oh no Kagome…we can't be friends, I'm hanyou…Oh no Kagome…we can't be together, I'm hanyou,' then it was, 'Oh no Kagome we can't have sex-'_

 _He cringed, embarrassment flushing his cheeks. 'This is different!' He interrupted._

 _She snorted, much alike to his usual Keh's. 'It's the same thing. You being insecure.'_

' _No!' He turned around then, an anger glowing in his amber stare, 'You not coming out of the water on our first night –' she 'meeped'-'_ that's _being insecure. Me not wanting pups cause they'll be ridiculed their whole lives, is being responsible. Maybe you should take a course in that, since nothing else has done you any good.' He silently reveled in her incredulous gasp. So he finally hit a nerve. Maybe she'd see reason. She only opened her mouth and closed it a few more times before storming back to their hut with what he regretfully knew were tears._

"Kagome, I can't….I can't do this to you-to the…" He choked up with an emotion so unlike his norm that he surprised himself, "I won't do this to a child."

She made an aggravated sound, a cross between sucking her teeth and a growl and shoved his head into her own, kissing him again, imploring him, and begging him to understand her need, the desire to push away his fears. She made him see his beauty, she brought forth the truths that he had once denied himself so long ago. The spring that came after the frigid winter, she colored his world and damnit it all, if she had to force herself on him to grant him the one thing he would have never thought he could bring himself to overcome, then she was going to do it- but she was doing it with a torch in her heart.

"Kagome..!" He couldn't refuse the allure of her hips as she grinded herself against him, wanton and needy, she enticed his soul to reach for her. To blow past his doubts into the passion she was shrouding him in.

"We're going to be good mommy and daddies'." She yanked the fabric on his waist down his legs and before he could get up in protest, she had already straddled him again. "And you're going to be happy about it, or I swear," She growled into his lips, foreheads touching.

His manhood pressed against her, a flag to his acceptance of her offer, but he was at a loss for further communication. Who was this devil of a woman? And it was then in that moment where her lips found him below the waist that he knew this was her all along. Kagome, the woman who refused to be brought down by the half-demon that despised her, the kitsune that stole from her, the monk that harassed her, and the slayer who threatened to kill them all. This was the woman who forged friendships from the cauldron, jumping in without hesitation, risking her life once, twice, countless times. This was the woman who saved Kikyo after she had let her fall into a pit of shadows. This was the woman who kissed him in a ravished demonic state, fearless and full of love with his claws digging into her flesh. This was Kagome. _**Ka-go-me**_. It was foolish of him to believe he could withhold anything from her, no less children. Children. The one thing she emphasized from time to time that she couldn't wait for.

There was still a voice, in the back of his mind, cruel and caustic, but growing more silent by the second, with every kiss, every touch, every lick and suck.

" _You can't have this,"_ Which always translated into him saying, "I can't have this,"

But there she was, hovering over him, topless and beautiful saying with all the determination in her voice, "Yes, you can."

In the darkness of their humble home, he held her, her calves across his legs, his caressing hand on her rear, the other by her face. Kagome felt his cloud of pleasure seeping away from him, slowly but surely. She raised herself on her elbow and looked down at his golden eyes. "You still have doubts,"

He sighed, closing his eyes, "You don't understand."

"What don't I understand? That our child would be loved? That our child would be watched out for, taken care of, treated like any other child in this village-"

"In this village," Inuyasha repeated, "In THIS village. What about the other villages, what about the rest of the world? What if we can't be holed up here forever? He'd be in a cage…for the rest of his life, or face rejection."

"The world is changing, Inuyasha," Kagome said softly, tracing a finger from the top of his furry ear to the base and giving him a gentle scratch. "We don't stop for the world, and the world doesn't stop for us. Let's just hope that we can feed this child, clothe this child, and love this child, everything else will come after."

Inuyasha's look turned into a narrowed eye annoyance, "I can feed and clothe em'"

"Yes, I made sure of that before I decided to do this."

"And I guess we could love em'."

Kagome hmmed and gave a thoughtful side glance, "I think we could manage that as well."

Inuyasha's hand curled tightly around her bottom and the woman atop him gave a short gasp, gripping his shoulders as if he was her only tether to gravity. They could do this. They could be happy…

With one last kiss, the half-demon said, "Okay."


	4. The Other Guy

A/N: A quick 900k drabble. I just watched Avengers and even though I didn't love it, there was a scene that I needed to copy into an "Inuyasha" scene. When I pictured writing this, I pictured a more sinister enemy. A more powerful bad guy, but I couldn't come up with anything so I just ended up with something mediocre. Sorry bout that.

I'd love to explore Inuyasha's full-demon side a little bit more, wouldn't you?

 _ **Rated: T**_

 _ **Summary: Inuyasha's half-demon state won't be enough.**_

 **The Other Guy**

Kagome knelt in front of Inuyasha, the panic of not seeing tomorrow now a consistent buzz at the forefront of her mind. She looked into his slowly fading eyes and wiped the sweat from his brow, then sliding her sooty hands down to the sides of his cut-up face. He closed his eyes longer than necessary for a blink, so she felt her heart freeze in her chest, unable to accept that he could be dying. The cave they had found momentary sanctuary in was beginning to crumble and for not the first time today, Kagome reminded herself that they were way out of their element, fighting an enemy that they couldn't defeat even when they gave it all they had. The ground above them finally gave up and with nothing but a screech that ripped from her lips, they were pushed together tighter than before, the oxygen becoming sparse. The rough material of his robe chafed against arms, burning the cuts and scrapes tattooed on her skin. She pressed herself closer to him and prayed to feel the elevation of his chest with an inhale. She waited a few more seconds and nothing came. Her eyes got wide and glazed over in desperation. Please. _Please._ His lungs rattled in his rib-cage and she finally heard it, the breath shuttering out of his mouth like a beacon to her soul. She let out a sob and kissed his forehead. Her husband was running out of time and they were stuck in this dark hole underground, with a giant lizard demon above them, seeking only to devour them and continue on with its destruction, en route to their little village. Their home. Their friends. Their friend's children. This dinosaur of monster was bound to extinguish them all.

"Inuyasha, listen to me," Kagome rasped out, "You have to wake up. I can't do this on my own. I can't defeat this guy; he's just a little bit too big for me." The hopelessness tugged a smile, despite the tears marking lines down her soiled face. One last boulder moved to fall on top of them but cracked over the light blue shield that rose up to protect them, emitting from his sword's sheath. Kagome took a moment in the blue hue to gaze the artifact at his hip. She fingered the rusty home of the Tessiaga with bloody digits, and like a spark of lightning an idea appeared in her mind.

She made a fist around the sword, the feel of the hilt causing a wave of nostalgia to hit against her like the shore. It's protected her number of times, too many to count. She's been witness to the golden glow of the almighty wind scar, the dragon scales, the red barrier, the backlash wave, the black Tessiaga. And all these powers could probably defeat the demon above them, but they meant nothing when their beholder couldn't even stand. The sword wouldn't be enough to save them. Her miko energy was running thin and her bow and arrows weren't within her reach even if she had wanted to try. This was the only idea left in her mind, this was their only choice, less they not only accept death but doom any innocent villages on the demon's course.

Kagome tugged on his white furry ear and watched as one golden eye opened to acknowledge her, on the precipice of oblivion, "Inuyasha, I'm sorry." Her voice was low but strong. Their crevice in the ground shook again as the monster roared its grating cry. The fist that was around the sword pulled and she removed the corroded weapon from its home, the other hand coming up to snap at the sheath, untying it from his waist. She held it close to her and pushed away, right after giving her husband another kiss, this time on the lips. "But I need the other guy."

The pulse was almost tangible as it reverberated through her, his whole body becoming like a heartbeat, the throbbing of his demon blood multiplying and magnifying and ripping through is veins like wildfire. Kagome held the key to keeping him sane tighter to her body, pushing down the fear of him losing control. That's what they needed right now, they needed him to lose control. They needed his lust for murder, she was just hoping that lust wouldn't be directed towards her, at least not before she could return him to normal.

In the darkness she stilled, the invisible ticking of a clock in her head.

"Inuyasha?" She ventured, coughing.

Crimson eyes snapped open.

She couldn't tell what was happening with his body but those two red eyes followed her and their glowing light floated towards her in the obscurity, rubies shining of a yearning for something sinister and evil. A sharp elongated claw dragged across her cheek bone, delicately tracing a severe gash on her face. He was advancing on her, and she felt his nose sniff at her eyes so she closed them. He took a long wet intake in breath and then a growl vibrated through his chest, unlike his normal growling, this one was savage and vulgar. Terrifying. Kagome swallowed.

A thick coarse voice filled her ears, dripping with excitement, "Who?"

Who did this. _Who was ready to die today. Who was ready to be rendered into so many little disfigured pieces of flesh that it would leave them an unrecognizable bloody mess._

The monster roared again overhead, followed by a pounding pressure, as if trying to dig them out to the surface.

Kagome pointed up with the little strength she had, "Him."


	5. Wife

**Kagomay Prompt**

 **A/N: I thought it'd be interesting to compare when Inuyasha and Kagome initially met to when they got married. More of an excuse to just load a prompt up for Kagomay. But it was the only thing I could think of for a drabble.** _ **"How did you get into Inuyasha?"**_ **Well I saw the 1st episode and it was all sorta downhill from there. Or up in my opinion…;)**

 _Rated: T_

 _Summary: Kagome is thinking she shouldn't be called wench anymore._

 **Wife.**

Kagome was making her way through her husband's namesake forest, stumbling through the foliage with the grace of a porcupine in the jungle. Her sandal hit a stubborn boulder making her stop in one quick fluid motion, "Ouch!"

"What did you do this time, stupid?"

She shot a scolding glance at Inuyasha but his words betrayed his actions and he was already knelt down inspecting the poorly-offended foot in question. The nail was chipped at the edge and a dribble of blood was drawing a line down to her bare soles.

"This is why I told you to cover your damn feet." Inuyasha grumbled as he reached down to yank the foot up, catching Kagome when she fell backwards. After being married for little over twenty-four hours, Kagome only crossed her arms in a silent pout as she starred at the sky through the veins of the green branches. Although usually she'd squeal in protest and surprise, now she half-expected it. _Of course_ he would just lift her foot like it was no big deal and then catch her on the drop before she split her head on another rock.

"The socks in this era reach up too high for this weather." She reasoned.

"Well tell that to your broken toe," Inuyasha burrowed his hand down Kagome's pant pocket, looking for the piece of cloth she routinely brought along to carry the berries and nuts they were looking for.

"It's not broken."

"Maybe this time it isn't."

"Inuyasha," Kagome deadpanned, "A sock isn't going to save me from a broken toe."

He made a sound of disagreement as he tore a piece of the cloth and expertly wrapped it around her big toe on the left. Kagome felt a small tug of gratitude to the fact that she was in the feudal era, her husband was Inuyasha, and materialistic things such as pedicures were non-existent. Because those feet of hers could have been on the next 'fashion suicide' back at home. Although, she bit her lip in thought, had she paid more attention to cutting her toenails, one might not have chipped on a rock and she wouldn't have to go back to the hut and make sure it wouldn't get infected later. But pushing those thoughts aside, she leaned most of her weight on a bent elbow and took a moment to admire the softness of the angle at which she was looking up at her husband in. Inuyasha was this harsh mouthed, clawed and fanged half-demon with a habit of flinging his sword around whenever threatened, but right now all she could see was his beautiful sharp-cut features. He must have inherited a lot of the color in his features from his father, the silvery white hair and the glowing amber eyes, but that slant to his cheek bones, the dark fan of his long eye-lashes, the elegant arch of his brows…that could only have come from his mother. Kagome was reminded of the first time she saw him. She had stumbled into this forest the same way she had just now, and had frozen in the awe and innocence of him. The sun kissing his face, the way it was currently, the same red garb that she had hugged close to her in the nippy dawn this morning… _oh, this morning,_ she thought to herself wistfully remembering his cold nose against her cheek, blowing warm air down the column of her throat and his calloused hands marking grooves under the red robe.

Inuyasha finished wrapping the toe and patted her knee, a smug smile on his tanned face. "All done, wench." He said, breaking her out of her daze. She gave her a head a quick shake.

"Wench, huh?" Kagome quirked a black eyebrow and she took Inuyasha's offered hand to stand back up. Inuyasha shrugged readjusting his arm by bending it at the elbow and winding it around.

"Don't you think you've exhausted that particular pet name?" She linked one of her arms through the hole between his upper arm and ribcage. They often walked like this, even though today might not be for very long seeing as the sun was trying in earnest to make sizzling sausages of everything on earth.

"What else am I supposed to call you?" He felt her weight lean against him as they went back to parading through the forest.

"Well…" A coy smile spread on Kagome's features, "You could call me, Wife."

A blush suddenly appeared on his cheeks and although Inuyasha routinely did okay in heat, a bead of sweat began collecting on his forehead. "But everyone already knows you're my wife, we got married in front of the whole village yesterday, did your weak human brain forget already?" Inuyasha tried diffusing the conversation, hoping she'd jump on the bait to start a fight.

Kagome lips puckered down together as she hmmmm'd. "Oh no, I remember quite well." Her voice then took on a low tone as she added, "And even if I had forgotten, you did a good job of _reminding_ me last night."

"Wh-wha..That wasn't…I-I wasn't.."

Inuyasha stopped walking and could only watch in abject embarrassment as his wife continued on ahead of him, his face now easily confused with a tomato. He didn't know what to say. The way that she could bring up what transpired between them in the passionate throws of their martial bed so easily, left him opening and closing his mouth like a koi fish on the surface of a pond. When they had first met he was one missing blow from delivering a mortal wound to this woman, and now here he was, red cheeked and stuttering.

Before she got very far, Kagome turned around to appreciate her husband's flushed face, she wasn't just going to stop there. She wanted the _steam_ to roll out of his ears.

"Me _and the rest of the village_ that is."

Pushing one hand against her mouth as she brimmed with mirth, she watched with appraisal as he looked like a balloon about to pop, his ears turned up as far as they could go.

Once the initial shock of her boldness wore off and his ears honed in on the sound of her chortling laughter he let his smoldering eyes lock onto her. Kagome's giggling subsided for a second before it slipped into a wavering smile.

"Well then, _Wife_ ," he said, easily with the smoothness of a lover, the sound of it bringing shivers to Kagome's spine, and the feeling of a familiar heat dripping down into the pit of her stomach made her become very aware of how the tables were rapidly turning, "I think it's time for _you_ to remind _me_."


	6. Storm

**A/N: I like to think that Inuyasha went through some hard heart-breaking times the first year that Kagome was gone…Listen to "Storm," by Lifehouse for more effect….at least it affected me a lot listening to it because it created this little confusing number.**

 **Rated: T**

 _ **Summary: Inuyasha's finds himself in a bloody predicament.**_

 _Water's getting harder to tread…_

 _With these waves crashing over my head…_

 **Storm**

It was an accident, or at least it would seem so, but the truth was that he was getting careless. He felt this terrible weight, like being caught underwater and barely being able to move as his feet tried to make purchase with the ground to jump upwards.

He would lay there on his back, coughing up blood and wonder to himself how it could get this bad. How a strong half-demon like himself could be found starring at the array of stars above him, watching with double bleared vision as small puffs of air brokered from his lips, knowing he was counting down to his last. But the curiosity would lead down this path that always ended on the last pair of sad brown eyes he ever saw, desperate and scared as he got pulled back into his era through the well. He recalled her out stretched hand…

 _What was she saying?_

Her lips were forming a word, _was it his name?_

 _Yeah_ …He thought listlessly as he closed his eyes, _she was saying my name_.

A year had finally passed and here he was celebrating the anniversary of Kagome's disappearance by dying.

He let the exhaustion of trying to stay alive take a hold of his eyelids.

Inuyasha was no stranger to loss. He knew the misery of losing someone, the quick and painful blow of someone you loved breathing and full of life, be rendered to a leather bag of skin and hair and void-less eyes. He understood that type of anguish, and he could even learn to be accepting of it, pretend to overcome and live every day into the next, a routine of sorts until he got over it.

But losing Kagome, wasn't really losing Kagome. She wasn't really dead, at least not as far as he was concerned. She was out there. She was on his earth, this earth, the same earth he walked on when he had traveled through the well into her era. His body would one day fossilize into the soil and the relatives of the worms that ingested his insides would have more of a chance at seeing her again than he did. One might think that the knowledge she was still alive would console him but the hopelessness gripped at his heart like a glove covered in nine-inch spikes, and it hurt so bad that the tears glassed up behind his eye-lids again, the sting made his nose shiver, and his ears, it was all he could but cut them off so that they wouldn't tremble like leaves at the familiar oncoming trauma. Here come the thoughts, the _dreams_ …

Why did she have to stay over there? Why couldn't she be here with him or god…why couldn't he just be there with her?

This year the winter had come brutally and the snow piled up like it had a score to settle. The good monk and his wife were probably cuddled up somewhere making more children, trying to keep the cold from their skin. The thought alone made him grimace, an ocean of facial expression in an otherwise large expanse of nothingness. The pain in his heart was only comparable to the pain in his abdomen and when he lazily reached down to rest a palm on the bark that was protruding from it, the very movement caused a pulse of ricocheting agony. He bit back his tongue and his eyes squeezed shut once more. He had missed his step jumping from a collection of packed snow that he half-thought was a solid ledge. Normally with his speed the misstep wouldn't have resulted in his weight being chained down by gravity at such a speed that he didn't have time to dodge the broken tree's smiling spear as it impaled him straight through the middle of his waistline. But he wasn't the same half-demon that he was before.

So a blood-red flower blossomed in his lower belly, the petals slipping into sanguine rivulets down his side, and the snow fell to frame his body like a canvas.

There was too much demon in his blood to cause a sudden fit of unconsciousness so he'd been laying there for a couple of minutes now, maybe almost an hour, feeling the wooden stump become all too comfortable with his insides. When the impulse to live caused his arm to shift, trying to remove the offending piece of wood, he realized his elbow must have been broken from the fall. A groan emitted from his mouth in realization that he wouldn't be able to do anything until it healed. That was until he acknowledged the fact that it had been a few minutes now and it wasn't healing…He conjured the energy to look behind him, despite the gnawing feeling of his organs being ripped apart. A defeated cry found its way through his pale lips when he saw why in fact the arm wasn't healing.

It was weighed down by a boulder that must have come down with him. That arm wouldn't heal until someone lifted it off him. That arm wouldn't heal at all. The stump wouldn't be removed and he would die here tonight.

The thought scared him for a moment. The idea of facing death after so many close calls with it throughout his life; it turned his bones to ice and lead. An emotion akin to disappointment crawled lazily across his mind.

His life would end.

But then at least he wouldn't feel this insidious depression that lingered so deep into his subconscious that he couldn't find relief even when he was surrounded by people that called out to him as a friend; a part of their family. The despair and unhappiness clung to him with deep gouges and poisoned his mind when he was left alone to fester with the darkness. Worse than a tree stuck through him, was what his mind created behind his eyes when he tried to find sleep. The 'what ifs', mauled at him like ravage wolves. The dreams of her made him ache. He knew what followed them, he knew every morning he'd wake up with stray tear stains on his cheeks and he knew in such an unforgettable way that he couldn't even take joy in the dreams when he was conscious within them. He couldn't hold her close in relief, he could only hold her in shambles. She would approach him like the sunlight leaving the sky and he could do nothing about it. The stars would shine above him like merry little sheep when he awoke in the middle of the night, their blinking eyes a reminder that the day still wasn't even over. He would stumble over to the well and drop into the abyss and just sit there and let the misery cradle him in the darkness. The days bled into each other and the sadness became a part of him, like an extension of his person. The others may have noticed. May have not.

Kaede would join him in his loneliness once in a while and just sit there, saying nothing and maybe taking a rest from her own daily troubles. Miroku would attempt to lull his pain with sake and jokes, Shippo was too hopeful of Kagome's return to even bother talking to him about it, and Sango said something once that he'd later have trouble understanding.

" _Time heals all wounds, trust me on this Inuyasha."_ She said as she was jostling her newborns, the fall air tickling their bare feet.

But time didn't heal the wound left behind by the loss of his mother, the realization that she was gone and he would have to grieve and move on, did. Time didn't heal the hole left behind by Kikyo's death, that particular hole still burnt in autumn when the leaves were at their most crimson.

Kagome didn't die, Kagome wasn't just gone, Kagome was stuck somewhere where he couldn't reach and the madness of it all ripped into him like nothing he had ever felt before.

He felt so goddamn hopeless all the time and even when he teamed up with Miroku to rid a village of a demon to save their lives it didn't make him feel anything.

He was numb to reality.

How could time heal this wound when time didn't even exist to him? The only amount of time that could possibly fill the gapping gash in his heart was 500 years and he was sure that even if he exercised the idea of being healthy and stayed alive long, he wouldn't make it. He wouldn't live 500 years and he would probably never see Kagome again. And fuck.

The blood coming out of the hole in his abdomen felt warm at first but now it was surely becoming frigid and he was getting so very tired…

 _I guess this is it…_

He wanted to remember her, her face, her voice, her laugh, from her shoulders to her knees, from the top of her raven bangs to the bottom of her alabaster feet, he wanted it all, and he reached far into his mind, digging deep into the locket of memories. This was the last image he wanted- _needed_ \- to leave this world without regret.

Her heart-shaped face, the chest-nut eyes that turned auburn in the fall and a quiet cobalt in the winter, the honey color they took on in the spring and the color of her cheeks in the summer heat. The back of her knees when she sauntered off angrily in front of him, the laugh- _that laugh_ -, god. The way her lips would curl back right before she yelled back at him in irritation, the feeling of her body pressed behind him, holding his clawed hand and whispering into his shoulder that she _understood_. The determination in her voice when she told somebody she was Kagome, and _no one else_. Her black hair that turned blue when she stepped into the moonlight, or when the moonlight itself stepped into their temporary hut to spiritually comb the fine straight tendrils of spun silk with its pale reflection.

 _Fuck, I sound like such a pansy._

But he didn't even care, this was the moment to do it. This was the time to be whatever he wanted to be, because he never got the chance to tell her when he had the chance. The regrets tried burrowing their way back through so he kept pushing on, kept letting the essence of Kagome saturate his mind, the memories filling his consciousness like liquid to a sponge. The sobbing started, relentlessly now.

The pipe in her voice when she took the time to explain something to him, the sympathy in her tone when he let his anger lash out before his sincerity, _the quick transformation in her demeanor from sympathy to punishing_ , the feel of her arms around his chest when she hugged him.

Like a miracle he felt the mental punctures of his swollen heart stich themselves, like his body being pieced together again.

He closed his eyes, accepting of what was coming any minute now.

" _I'm ready for you, you dirty bastard,"_ he thought before he let oblivion carry him off into what he could only guess was nirvana.

"Ridiculous."

The voice made Inuyasha snap his eyes open on their own accord, and he felt the pain crest up again through his entire body.

"This can't be happening," he mumbled, although it barely came out a whisper. He was fading. Fast.

"How dare you consider yourself a _half_ -demon. I doubt even a human would find himself in your current predicament."

Inuyasha tried gritting out his name through his clamped jaw but the effort was too much.

"You shove your way through to our father's grave, take my arm, steal my sword, single-handily defeat the dragon that slayed our father, and blast through an otherwise impenetrable stone belly of a beast while standing in its stomach acids and yet here you are…pathetic."

"You forgot taking down Naraku." Inuyasha griped although talking now coated his tongue in the steel taste of his blood.

"No," The voice said, standing and looking down at Inuyasha from the top of a nearby hill with calculative eyes, "I did that."

"You talk too much shit," Inuyasha commented.

"That's what happens when you are on the brink of a pitiable death."

"Your condescending-as-fuck half-brother stands over you and talks your damn ears off before you can even go off in peace?" Inuyasha didn't bother to think about how when before, the words came hard to speak, were now rolling out of his mouth like marbles.

The silver haired demon made a sound of disagreement and before Inuyasha could blink he was above him.

"Our father would be humiliated."

"Well fuck him, he died when I was just a brat." Inuyasha rolled his face away, not wanting to do this now. The image of Kagome was going up in smoke. He didn't want it to end like this.

"He died, saving your wretched life."

"Well no one asked him."

Sesshomaru was kneeling down now, "You are right. No one asked him and he did it anyway. Our great demon lord father, ruler of the western lands, most powerful demon in all the continent, gave up his life for you. He could have turned around and relinquished his responsibility to a human woman who would die before he reached his prime, and a half-breed baby who would be shunned by everyone. No one would have held it against him, including me. But he chose to save you."

Inuyasha stayed quiet.

"And here you are…dying and crying over _love_. Disgusting."

"Would you shut up already!?" Inuyasha yelled, his teeth grinding together with such a force that the friction made a gyrating noise and the tears continued to spill freely.

"Inuyasha, look at me." A hand came down to touch his wet cheek.

The surprise alone made the half-demon blink twice before looking up again and there she was.

She was as beautiful as the first day he saw her, face down in the dirt, even with the soot under her eyes.

"Inuyasha," her voice, like the feel of ribbon around his heart.

"You're dead."

"Your skills of deduction are still as keen as ever."

Inuyasha couldn't help the smile that quirked on his lips, "When did you develop a sense of humor?"

"I've always had one, Inuyasha."

"Yeah? Was it before or after you pinned me to the tree?"

She wasn't one for many facial expressions but this one, he especially took delight in. A pair of pursed lips and narrowed eyes. "Not even tactful in death, I see."

"You knew that before you came here."

"I knew that before I fell in love with you."

Her smile this time was something he wouldn't mind die remembering. It was from the first Kikyo. The one before the bloodshed and drama. The light and warmness in her face came to full surface and the last thing he heard from her was feathery laughter as she disappeared from this world back to the next.

And as luck wanted him, the next figure to appear was a long-legged, green skirted angel with white sleeves.

" _Kagome."_

"You weren't planning on dying here, were you silly?" She wiped a stray of blood from his jawline. She looked disappointed, but that smile never left her face.

Inuyasha gave a shuttering breath, "Kagome."

Her eyes turned to his, imploring and deep and brown. "That isn't the Inuyasha I know."

His hands came up then, without pain and without trouble to cup her face. "Kagome, please."

"The Inuyasha I know would fight."

He tried opening his mouth to reply, to confess all the longing he held inside of him but the words fell short and he fell back into the abyss, a floating piece of drift wood out in the expanse of a large body of water. _No! I need to tell her!_

 _I need to let her know!_

 _I need to live!_

He felt the tendrils of death come crashing in around him, suffocating him like smoke but he forced his nostrils open again and focused all his concentration on his unbroken arm. He made a fist with the uninjured hand and with the little energy he had left he opened his eyes to face the falling snow again. And just as he did he saw a piece of pink floating far above him in the white powder of the sky.

He knew right away what he had to do. Taking in quick gulp for breath, he let his lungs rip.

" **SHIPPO!"**

And then with that last expense of effort, he was lost.

 _If I could just see you…_

 _Everything would be alright._

 _If I could see you…_

 _This darkness would turn to light._


	7. Genetics

**Genetics**

 **A/N:** I just feel like if Inuyasha and Kagome had kids, one of them would wind up looking a lot like someone she can't see anymore. I'm also starting to like my OC Kenta from the other story "The First Time." I might continue using him for future drabbles. In fact I'm pretty sure.

 _Summary: A quick drabble. Genetics brings the ghosts back to life sometimes._

The ears and fangs and the color of his eyes were all his father's.

When her son had first been born she was in such a loving trance that there wasn't a single doubt that that this boy was a clone of his father. All the distinguishing features were of his genetic line and she held him close, weeping because she could not have wanted him any other way.

But as the years passed by, she started to notice something peculiar happening to her little quarter-demon. The shape that housed those golden orbs, the silver fringe that stuck up in a cow-lick over his eyebrows, the dimple on his right cheek and that mischievous smile, all belonged to someone who was _not_ Inuyasha. They were not hers either and the familiar nostalgia pulled at the back of her eyes imploring to seek further into the recess of her memory.

 _Nee-chan, can I have some? Please?_

Then, with a gasp she realized who her brain was recalling and it took all her will-power to bite her lip and repress the tears as the three year old vision of her younger brother toddled over to her asking for chocolate milk.

Ever since Sesshomaru had brought some chocolate to Rin, it had been a hot commodity around the village. So it wasn't long before the tall, smiley, pony-tailed teenager lent some to Kagome for Kenta to try, and the little boy was hard set on making chocolate milk the sole source of all his nutritional need by drinking chocolate milk and _only_ chocolate milk.

"Sweetie, you know it upsets your stomach," she murmured while hoisting him up on her hip to get a better look at his face.

It was one of those things that once you saw you could not unsee. He was the spitting image of Sota Higurashi and she could feel her heart breaking in her chest with every turn on his face to showcase another angle to study. A ghost to compare to. Then without much warning she crushed him to her body and slid down to the floor, listening to her son's worried grunts as she held back a sob at the base of her throat.

It had almost been ten years but a big sister never forgets.

 _Her baby brother, the little boy that she had snuggled with on stormy nights, chased around the playground, tutored in pre-algebra, watched the complete Sailor Moon series with; was lost on the other side of the well._ The memory of her ruffling the black spray of hair on his big head right after slapping a band-aid on his knee surfaced for some reason to the forefront of her mind and she felt her chest tighten.

"Mama!" The toddler finally complained, after deciding his mother was squeezing him and he wanted to be let go. And he hadn't forgotten about the original reason he had approached her in the first place.

"Coco! Mik!" He lifted a sticky hand to pat her face affectionately. "Maaaama…." Kenta didn't like that look his mother was giving him. It was a sad look, and he wanted his mama to smile. So he slid his small palm from her cheek to stick a finger up her nose, "Mama!" And when she burst into laughter, he chuckled too, happy he had achieved the desired result.

A shadow came over them both and a clawed hand reached over to pluck the giggling child from his mother's arms.

"What's so funny?" He jostled the kid for a second before deciding on just lifting him by his barefoot, evolving the giggling into joyful screeching, chocolate milk long forgotten.

Kagome bent a knee and then balanced herself back up, attempting to not draw attention as she ran an index finger under her eye to wipe away a stray tear.

But no amount of stealth could escape her husband's keen senses and he tossed Kenta into the air, flipping him back upright and then catching him to set him on the ground. The boy's high-pitched squeals dribbled back into giggling as his father steadied him on his two feet with an arm looped around his stomach before letting him go completely.

Inuyasha patted him on the rump, "Alright little man, go hunt some butterflies or something."

At the mention of the butterflies Kenta's ears turned into beacons and he was waddling onto the front porch mumbling, "Buttaflies…"

Her husband turned his eyes back to her, but she had taken the opportunity of distraction to turn around and start preparing dinner. She had just started reaching for the skinless chicken before his hands descended on her shoulders soothingly.

"What's eating you?" His voice held that familiar ruggedness but she knew if she was looking at him, his face would express a different emotion. Worry. Concern.

She debated not being honest but she knew deep down that she could never lie to him anyway, "Kenta…"

She sighed finally twisting her body and dislodging his grip on her, "He looks so much like Sota, Inuyasha…" Her voice quavered.

The half-demon displayed an expressionless face, his ears twitching towards the doorway to keep a tab on the baby. It was as if he was sorting through the many thoughts in his brain, trying to latch onto the closest solution to his wife's problem. There wasn't much he could do about the way the kid looked…and he actually really liked his son's face….

Kenta could be heard pouncing, landing in the dirt, and then getting up while singing softly to himself in the silence.

" _Buttafly…buttafly…"_

"Is that…a bad thing?" Inuyasha finally ventured, scrutinizing his wife's face for any signs of future distress.

"No," She supplied curling a piece of hair around her finger and chewing the inside of her cheek. "It's not a bad thing."

It was Inuyasha's turn to sigh this time, "But it makes you unhappy…"

"It makes me happy." She said quickly, her open palms turned to him in alarm, "It makes me _really_ happy!"

"Then you're crying _because_ …"

"I'm not _crying_!" Kagome emphasized by crossing her arms stubbornly. "It just makes me… _miss_ him, is all." After a beat of silence she added, "Did you notice him looking…like Sota?"

Inuyasha made a humming noise and nodded sullenly. "I knew he looked somewhat like someone, but I just figured it was you."

Kagome gave into her emotions and leaned the weight of her head against him. "You're hopeless."

"Well at least he doesn't look like my brother." He continued, ignoring her last comment.

The remark made her smile into the fabric on his chest, "I'm sorry to break it to you, but you, your brother, and Kenta all look _unquestionably_ related."

Inuyasha frowned scratching the side of his cheek with one eye cocked, "Keh."

The memory of her brother still burned fresh and without pause she felt the stinging of her nose signifying the onslaught of fresh tears. The scent must have notified her husband because he then curled a finger under her chin to gently turn her face upwards.

"Hey," He said quietly, quirking his eyebrows. She felt her eyelids fall half-way in a dreamlike state as his lips neared hers, "No crying," He admonished before closing the distance in a ki-

"PAPA!" A throaty voice interrupted, "GOTZ BUTTAFLY!" A frightened, brown, fat, village rat, dangled by his dusty tail in the toddler's hard grip.

"OH my god!" Kagome exclaimed in horror. "That is **NOT** a butterfly!"

Inuyasha growled and rushed forward to separate the two, firmly grasping the crying rat and rearing his arm back in a pitch, tossing him out the porch a couple miles. _Somewhere in the distance Rin screamed._

"Papa, _nooooo!"_ His child howled in his throaty voice, and made to run out and retrieve the animal again but Inuyasha dragged him back by the collar of his blue shirt. Kagome slid down to his side and began to aggressively wipe his small hands with a wet rag despite the toddler's sniveling protests.

The two parents held each other's gazes for a flashing moment, their son wailing with wet tears in the background, and they shared a quiet grin, an unwritten promise, before focusing all their attention on making Kenta happy again.

 **Extra:**

"So his cosmetic features are Inuyasha's, that much is obvious, and his face looks like your brother, but where in the _world_ ," Sango hesitated, peering once more at the quarter-demon chasing around on two chubby legs behind her twins, "Did those _eye-brows_ come from?"

Kagome pursed her lips in consternation while folding another piece of laundry over the line in front of her. Her son _did_ have unnaturally bushy black eyebrows, "You know…I'm not entirely sure."

 _Somewhere in heaven, Inu-no-Taisho sniggered._


	8. Husband: Inuyasha

**A/N:** _Posted this on tumblr, so now I'm posting it here for safe-keeping for anyone else that wanted to read it. I'm almost done with the next chapter of Feudal World, going to try and post sometime today, but I had to get this off my chest after listening to_ _Matt Bomer singing his version of Heaven_ _. It's a quick water-mesh drabble; look at it like a string of words that has no plot, no character development, just words about our favorite OTP._

 **726 words.**

 **Husband: Inuyasha**

* * *

Being married to Inuyasha was no walk in the park.

But it was a calling to my soul that I do believe resonated within me since the moment I was born into this world.

He's crass and he's bitter, about most things that takes me too much time to understand.

He's pleasant around good children but tough on the troubled ones.

He's slow to fall asleep but quick to wake and he tracks dirt onto the futon more times to count.

His voice is bored and blasé when asked what he wants to eat and I know he's daydreaming of steaming noodles and styrofoam. Sometimes he doesn't get home until the moon has settled high into the star scattered sky. Sometimes he's not there when I'm blowing disappointed bubbles into the steamy water when he said he'd meet me here for a bath after he finished fixing a problem at the neighboring village with Miroku.

Sometimes he doesn't tell me that he's been torn through the shoulder by a nasty bear demon and I have to go looking for him, only to find him bleeding and lonely on a tree branch, one foot dangling, the other propped into his chest in agitation.

Sometimes he doesn't understand the tone in my voice when I'm asking him to come down, he mistakes it for anger when in reality it's worry.

Sometimes I don't understand the tone in his voice when he's yelling at me to go back home, I mistake it for annoyance when in reality it's concern.

Sometimes we're yelling so loudly that my voice turns hoarse, my tears drawing patterns down my cheeks and his claws are fisting into his hands with such force that it's drawing bloody designs. We lose ourselves in the pool of emotions, the sea-level rising.

But most of the time we find each other again in our apologetic words and gentle touches, a kiss on the brow, a hug in the dark and I smile against the rough material of his fire-rat, the smell of the forest filling my nose so vividly that I'm no longer my own person. I'm just a leaf on his breast. Riding through nature like a quiet breath.

I'm waking up not to the sound of birds, but the gentle caress of his lips on my lobe. I'm having trouble falling asleep some nights, thinking about my family on the other side of the well, and his fingers are there, reaching from the top of my head to the end of my terraces, gently combing out my sadness.

His pink lips are smiling some nights as I tell him tales of my market struggles.

Other nights, his amber eyes are on me, the feeling that I'm all he sees, I'm all he _wants_ , bringing me to my rawest senses. I want, I need, I _desire_. His stare a portal into the blazing sun that extinguishes me to my core.

I catch him sleeping still some mornings, rare moments so I tend to cherish these. I smooth down his black brows and his face stays in that passive peaceful state, the same way he was the first time I saw him. My eyes tear up some mornings.

I kiss him on my way out the door, he kisses me when he's leaving for the day.

He kisses me with a mouth full of bread after I ask him if the loaf was decent, since it was my first time baking it. I ask him this every single time after.

I learn that we work together better when I quietly wait for him to calm down from a tantrum. I wait for his defenses to go down, his shoulders to slump and that's when I proceed with caution. The waters settled enough for me to tread. My small canoe over the years becomes a strong fast-hold ship that doesn't capsize easily in the wake of his harsh weather.

I swim into his heart with the tenacity of a diver in warm waters as he crashes into mine with the passion of a bird that's just learned to fly.

My name falls from his hard mouth like a plea, the confessions of his heart ripping me like a wind-scar, and I'm holding onto him like a prayer.

We fall apart some days but we always come back together in the end.

Being married to Inuyasha was no feudal fairy-tale.

It was a plunge into the unknown beauty of a world that I have always been destined to adventure.


	9. Sesshomaru Hates

**A/N:** Posted on tumblr, reposting it here. Just a drabble in-between working on the next chapter for Feudal World. This has been a headcanon of mine's since like…forever.

 **418 words.**

 **Sesshomaru Hates**

* * *

Sesshomaru hated humans.

Sesshomaru hated human _children._

And Sesshomaru above all, hated Inuyasha and his ridiculous Miko wife.

 _Yet-_

"Sessomau'," The small voice chirped, its chubby arms coming up under its arms and mimicking the flapping that birds make in exaggerated motions, "Why birs?"

The older white-haired demon stared intently at the brood of finches that the child was referring to and automatically he knew the question that the toddler was attempting to ask, and felt the sharp sting of hatred for understanding _that_ as well. _Why do birds fly?_

"Because they have wings." He answered, listening to the child accept this answer and cease his flapping. The small boy-child plotted himself back down next to his uncle, the material of his dirty robes pooling around him. Sesshomaru would have rolled his eyes, (had he cared enough) since really he didn't understand why he continued to send this family robes if their child was so resolved on soiling them. At least Rin, took care of her things.

He felt the baby stare very closely at his back and Sesshomaru sighed, awaiting yet another trivial question.

"Sessomau'," He started again, raising a finger to point a blunt claw at the larger male's back, "No wins?"

This caused a rare stretch of his thin lips, "No Kenta. I don't have wings."

"Sessomau fly." The baby fought, confused. _But you fly._

Sesshomaru nodded waiting for the request in a similar manner for which a cat awaits a _shower._

The little boy's ears wiggled cheerfully, his hands meeting in excited claps, his grin brighter than the sun, "Sessomau fly gain'!"

For a passing second Seshomaru also hated the fact that he wondered to himself, _is this what Inuyasha would've looked like?_ Would the half-demon bastard been this _peaceful,_ this worry-free spirit that dared make requests of a demon? Would he have smiled like this?

Something keen to perhaps regret tried to root itself in Sesshomaru's subconscious but it was squandered quickly and efficiently by years of practice as he lifted himself up on his two tall legs.

He grunted, looking down at the quarter-demon in affirmation and the toddler eagerly climbed Sesshomaru's pant leg like a spider monkey.

The demon gazed into his reflection within the wide golden eyes of his ancestry, "Kenta, what are you not doing when you return to your wretch of a mother?" The demonic energy beginning to swirl around them in whips of blue and purple.

"No tellin mama." Kenta said seriously, his hoarse baby voice growing solemn, and gripping tighter to Sesshomaru's leg, his own small pair coming around to loop around his larger one.

And then they were gone with the wind.


	10. They're Okay

**A/N:** Sigh, well here I am again with another drabble. After I'm done with _Feudal World,_ I plan on working on a " _Kaede having to deal with the InuKag family_ " project. I don't know if I can capture her character well enough, but I'm going to try.

 _ **1579 words**_

The kids were tormented by the pregnancy, and it was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to watch since losing my eye and sister in the same week.

I'm wondering if maybe terming them _kids_ was belligerently inappropriate due to the fact they're about to have one of their own, but I decide not to mind it because regardless of what happens, these idiots are my children.

The girl is as expected, jovial in the beginning. Singing and mumbling happily to herself like a lark in spring, and she's forcing any woman who's closest to her in the village to teach her to sew tiny clothes with her begging deposition. She follows close behind me when I'm in route to the new mothers of the village to coo over the newborns in unbridled anticipation. She takes every opportunity to watch over Sango's brood. She's rubbing her flat stomach, and smiling like she's in paradise, untouchable by the cruel fingers of gloom's lurking hand.

But then that flat stomach turns into a bump, and soon a round living object that forces her to waddle and moan and arch in uncomfortable angles. But this isn't what does her in, the physical pains of pregnancy isn't enough to break this girl.

It's something deeper, something shattered that can't be fixed, something misplaced and far and cast into the void of time.

I catch her one morning, looking past me, her eyes trained on a giggling little girl as her mother lifts her from the ground to blow kisses into her small cherry cheeks.

The girl's thinking about her mother, I know she is.

She's thinking about her and for the remainder of the day I anxiously look into her brown eyes to find the same grief housed in them as earlier, and its rapidly deciding to take permanent residence.

I try to break her from the sorrow by distracting her, every day she comes to me just past sunrise and we busy ourselves with tasks and we stop visiting the newborns. I try to evade the topic of motherhood, if only to avoid adding more water into that pool of sadness that she's wading in.

But one day she doesn't come and although I get nervous, I also know her husband is taking care of her and nothing could possibly happen to the girl. My heart doesn't accept it though, and for the whole day I'm a wreck; dropping things, tense and troubled. Rin scowls back at me when I pull on her hair too tightly as I'm braiding it. I apologize, she grins, forgiving me.

The next day, I await at the front of my hut, casting my one good eye at the top of the hill to catch sight of her incredibly round form, covered in red and white material.

Crimson pierces the horizon, but it's not the girl, it's the boy and when he reaches me, his voice broken and lost; I swallow a lump in my throat.

We make our way up the hill, towards the farthest end of the village where the couple chose to build their humble manor. I shuffle much slower than he does walk, but he's kept pace with me, his gait short and heavy.

We find her in a corner of their room, curled into a ball, or as far as she can get with her swollen belly. She looks like a frightened animal caught in a trap, her small puffy eyes finding our forms in the darkness.

Tears are streaked down her cheeks and she shoots the boy a betrayed look of frustration but I don't let whatever words break from her lips as I bend down, ignore my screaming tendons and engulf her in an embrace.

She forgets about the boy and her sobs echo throughout their home.

She wants her mother, she wants to know everything is going to be okay, and nobody can give that to her.

After this, it takes a few more spells of finding her in that corner again but time heals and although she had fallen into that moment of desperation, she understands the need to remain stable. She relapses, but my arms are always there to hold her. She's bad, but she gets better.

The boy is worse and almost without cure.

His sentiments are hung from his eye-lids to his sleeves, a heavy emotional weight on his shoulders that no one can help him with. Whereas the girl had only learnt of her depression as she got larger, he had been suffering from the beginning. When I first went to inspect the girl and presented them the information that they were going to be parents, the initial look that passed his face wasn't pride or joy or any of the typical expressions that most fathers captured. It was an absence of confidence, the fear finding him instantly with its merciless vice-grip.

At the mere mention of the approaching baby in the following months, he's an immediate mess, his body tenses like a stiff board, his ears freeze on the top of his head and you can see the terror replace whatever emotion he previously had on his facial expression.

Miroku mistakes it for the same fear _he_ had when he had first heard of Sango being pregnant, but I know better.

I attribute to me being old, but I know that the fear the boy is experiencing isn't just merely due to the idea of being a _father._

I see it in his anguished stare when a pair of kids are bullying another smaller child.

I see it in his disappearing moods when the girl visits me to tell me that boy has gone again.

Sometimes she goes out to find him, sometimes she's too tired, her feet swollen and in pain.

So then I'm out there, hunched and huffing, calling out for him in the orange hues of another sundown.

I find him.

"What if I can't love it enough?" He struggles, his voice hoarse, as if he's just found the ability to speak after a life-time of being mute.

I scoff, my voice scratchy right along with his, "You'll love that infant _too_ much."

After he lets this settle, he asks me if he made the right choice.

But he's not really asking me, he's asking himself and these kids are going to tear me apart because if I have to face yet another mental obstacle that I can't lead them over, I'm going to have a heart-attack.

"Boy," I start, my honesty burning in my throat, "It matters not whether you made the right choice or not, the choice has been made, the baby is a month away and your wife is pale and thin and you won't have a ' _choice'_ to worry about at all if you don't do something to change this damn mood of yours."

I've never seen the boy cry but as he falls from his perch, I try not to gasp at the ravaged pained manifestation in his eyes. The frantic color of his amber orbs at the idea of losing the unborn child- and that's all I need to know that despite the dread that's eating away at him, he _wants_ this more than anything in the world.

I wish to open my arms to him, chase away whatever doubts etch across his mind, but I know this isn't the way. This isn't the boy's way.

I reach out one of my wrinkled hands and pat him on the shoulder. He wordlessly takes me back to the hut in his strong arms, since we both know I can't keep up with him and he is intent on running back to the girl. We reach the flap of my little hut and she's curled up against a sleeping Rin in the glow of the fire.

He's eight months late on this conversation, but I leave them alone as they move their discussion outside, gentle whispering accented by the sound of them hugging and falling into each other.

I hear the girl's surprised shriek that shrinks away towards the twilight of their home and his deep bolstering laugh that saturates the nighttime sky. I peek my head out to see their silhouettes blend into the trees.

Rin wakes up and shocks me, her footsteps silent and cautious, as her brown head appears under mine, "Are they okay, Kaede-sama?"

I grin.

"They're okay."

And I'm reaffirmed of that decision when Sango and I slave ourselves for a whole day, helping the first-time mother through the loud, painful, labor.

I take a breather, to give the new parents their peace. I shuffle out into the moonlit sky and send out a prayer for the new member of my beautiful precious family.

When I decide to return into their intimate space, I see a happiness, a sheer bliss that is unparalleled to any other moment before this. The boy is crying tears of joy, not in the slightest bit embarrassed.

"You were right, you damn old hag." He chokes with a smirk, holding the new puppy-eared babe tighter to his body.

The girl is pulling at his ears, admonishing, but it's heartfelt, and despite how terribly exhausted she looks, I see the giant globs of delight falling down her crystal eyes as well. She mouths an apology, but I just smile, wringing my hands on a ragged white cloth.

I shake my head with a roll of my one eye, "About what, boy?"

"I already love him too goddamn much."

And I laugh because…

 _They're okay._


	11. She's a Goddess

**A/N:** I was never going to post this, but I got distracted and started editing it. I just remember how uncomfortable Inuyasha got when Sota was asking him about "love" and I wanted to put him in that position again. (opens tab back up to Feudal World doc)

 _She's a Goddess_

 **Words: 1,257**

 _Summary: Miroku's 15 year-old son needs some advice. And who better to ask than Inuyasha?_

* * *

I was minding my own damn business, with the girl in a pouch that sat heavy on my stomach (getting too old for it, but she screams if I try removing her), before Miroku's youngest comes up to me, a walk in his step that resembled more of a slug than a human. My oldest is trailing behind him, skipping excitedly…. about what? Well I guess I was about to find out. I lift a piece of the corn wheat from the top of the growing crop, and chew on it… _why_ -? Because I'm _hungry_ and my wife's making sure none of us eat until the damn festival starts.

" _Inuyasha!" She viciously swats my delicious, sweet, innocent, bread roll, from my hands, "Sango, Rin and I are slaving ourselves cooking for tonight! So just hang tight! I don't want you to spoil your appetite."_

She's trying to starve us to death is what she's doing.

The baby coos and reaches her little claws at me and I carefully slide a piece of the wheat into her waiting mouth. When she realizes it's not really food she spits it out and turns her deep-blue eyes at me to give me the angriest look I've ever seen on a toddler, and I laugh quietly.

"Father!" Kenta hops over to me, his feet bare and dragging the robes at his ankles along the dirt. I'm about to open my mouth to tell him to put some damn sandals on because clothes aren't free, but then I remember that these are probably the ones Sesshomaru gifted him and I shrug my shoulders instead.

"Yeah?" I ask him but I'm looking intently at the older boy behind him, who's the spitting image of his perverted father. The boy's going to be the best looking man in the village in a few years, but I'm not going to tell him that.

The skinnier version of Miroku, scuffs his sandal against the ground and mumbles something, but at that exact moment the girl catches sight of something and _shrieks_. I wince and twitch my ears out. I catch Kenta plugging his own ears, exaggeratedly pulling a face.

"What?" I ask him again.

Kenta puts his hands on his knees and bends down under the older boy's face, as if willing for him to speak up again. If he had long hair it would be touching the soil, but since his mother is insistent on cutting it, it just waves about in the wind like silver grass. When the boy doesn't respond, Kenta turns to me with a self-assured grin, "He says he's in _love_."

"…and?" My growling stomach is making me impatient.

The baby giggles at a blue butterfly as it passes and I jostle her. I glance at her distractedly, _is that what you were screaming your lungs out about?_ She's pursing her lips and blowing bubbles, babbling excitedly. I shake my head and pat her on the head affectionately. My silly girl.

"And he wants your _advice_!" My son says brightly, all of ten years old. He nudges the older boy forward, and then turns to me again with a fang-filled smile.

I sigh. This boy of mine is sometimes way too happy. There are so many things to be upset about right now: lack of food, lack of wife who _cares_ about lack of food, lack of a mother who can watch over her youngest daughter, saying she "can't" because she's cooking a "feast", lack of _respect_ from said wife because some of that food is going to be eaten by stupid half-brother, wolf-garbage and his prattling _brats_ …

"Advice on what?" I say tartly all of sudden.

"Wooing a woman," Kenta elbows him with a scandalously risen bushy brow, and the teenager next to him flinches, his face contorting in disgust.

"Not a _woman_ -!" Miroku's son stops himself and closes his eyes as if he's psyching himself up for a confession. I take a step back, because although I don't give a damn whether or not this boy likes men or women, I don't think I should be the one that handles it-

"A _goddess_." He finishes.

Okay. I _really_ shouldn't be handling this.

"Who?" My curiosity asks, before I could care less about all this.

He mumbles again and an annoyed noise gurgles in my throat as I roll my eyes. I think Kenta gets the idea that I'm not in the mood to dance around words so he spreads his arms open wide in exasperation and yells, "Aunt Rin! He's in love with Aunt Rin!"

I think I'm choking on something.

"Rin? _Rin_ , Rin? Rin, the one that _helped wash off your amniotic sac_?"

Miroku's son gazes at me with the saddest pair of violet eyes I've ever seen, his emotions clouding up to form tears at the corners. He looks like someone kicked his heart right out of his chest and threw it into the deepest pits of Mt. Hakurei.

His bottom lip juts out in a pathetic pout right before he yells at me-

" **I LOVE HER!"** His voice breaking and tuning out, since you know, he's still going through fucking _puberty_. And Rin did that… _eight years ago._

 _I refuse to deal with this._

"And what do you want me to do about this?" I all but roar back at him, "You want me to tell her for you?" There's not even a chance in hell.

"No!" The teenager holds out a palm, his shoulders shrinking down while trembling and I swear he's one blink away from reverting to a puddle of salty tears. "She already…She already knows," he cracks.

Oh _fuck._ I'm afraid to ask what happened next…but I'm also dying to know.

I stop myself from asking though and just pray that the kid will open his mouth again. When it's obvious that he isn't, I glance at my son and he gets the idea immediately.

"Aunt Rin patted him on the head and said that he was cute and that she loved him too, just like a baby brother!"

I'm one stitch away from being undone into a fit of laughter so I desperately turn around and stifle my amusement by biting my lip, the baby finding entertainment in the sudden motion and giggling in the silence.

And then we hear cackling and we all turn to focus on that old hag who seems to have appeared out of thin air, donning her traditional red and whites, laughing so hard at the teenager's expense, that she knocks herself over.

* * *

A/N: I always post my drabbles on tumblr first, then I polish them over and post in my "Drabbles" ^_^ I haven't thought of a name for the MirSan kids yet. I'm super nervous about it lol, if you have any ideas, please send them to me! I'm beggin! The names for the InuKag kids just came to me naturally, Kenta, Kaede, and Kameko. I didn't mean to give them all have K names but I guess it goes along with the show since we had, Kagome, Kikyo, Kaede, Kagura, Kanna, Kirara, Kohaku...etc. I can't wait to finish the next chapter of Feudal World (I refuse to write any more drabbles until I have the next chapter done) so that I can write the special moment when Kaede Higurashi is born :3

And leave me a review if you want, or if you caught any mistakes! 3


	12. Snippet into the MamaKags Life

**A SNIPPET INTO THE MAMAKAG LIFE**

 **A/N:** _Less than 500 words_

* * *

"How did ya know?"  
Kagome wiped her brow with a sweaty hand and brought her basket of radishes tighter to her hip, "Know what, little bird?"

The young boy twirled a dandelion in his smaller clawed hand, "That you were gonna marry Papa."

His mother's lips split into a half moon smile, "I loved him."

"You love me." The four year old reasoned, foraging for more weeds to collect.

"It's a different type of love," she elaborated, bending down again to pluck another root from the soil.

"I love ba-chan." His hoarse voice carried on the wind, and Kagome twisted to keep her eye on him. He had disappeared into the tall stems of the meadow and all she could make out were his snowy white ears as they twitched peacefully.

She smirked, "Yes, we all love Kaede-baa-san."

"I think I'm going to marry ba-chan," the little boy decided, straightening and distractedly continued picking at the weeds, dropping them all in his tiny wicker basket.

Kagome covered her mouth to stifle a chuckle, "And why is that?"

"Well I can't marry _you_ , mama."

"Oh?"

"Yah, papa woul get real angry and then you'd sit him."

"True, true," she nodded her head in understanding, digging her fingers into the dirt to unlatch a stubborn root.

"And ba-chan makes really yummy noodos stew," the child continued, engrossed in throwing a few interesting looking rocks into his basket.

"That she does."

"And kisses my booboos."

"Oh yes." Kagome looked at her collection of radishes and decided they could start moving back home. She shuffled up the hillside and softly held the side of her son's head as he leaned it against her red pant leg.

"Don't you think Jun might get a little jealous though?"

His thick black eyebrows crushed together in confusion, mulling over his mother's question about the wolf clan's youngest member.

"I guess I can marry her too."

Kagome giggled and patted his rump when they reached the top of the hill.

"But she hasta learn how to make noodos."


	13. Don't Wake Up Mama

**DON'T WAKE UP MAMA**

* * *

The toddler planted her butt firmly on the green knitted mat, heaving a breath as she looked desperately between her two siblings.

The boy seethed at his sister as she yanked away a bow from his grip.

"It's not my fault you decided to break yours, mama made this one for me!"

His hands curled into fists, "You don't even use it!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"You can't even shoot straight, every time you use it, an accident happens!" She snarked, crossing her arms, grey eyes alight with victory. Hoping she hit a nerve.

"Oh yeah?" He whispered viciously, a side of him seeping through his voice that only his sister was capable of prodding out, "Well you ARE an accident."

The girl gasped dramatically, the shrill sound of her voice filling the room, "I am not!"

"Are too! Papa said so when they were about to give you away!"

"They wouldn't do that, you idiot!"

The toddler on the floor couldn't take it anymore, her eyes shining with tears.

"Accident!" The brother reached down to grab the weapon again.

"Mistake!" The sister shined her claws.

"YOU WERE ALL ACCIDENTS, NOW SHUT IT!" Inuyasha bellowed, drawing them tight to his sides in an effort to keep them apart before any blood was spilled.

"YOUR MOTHER IS TRYING TO SLEE-"

The baby let out a murderous wail and a chilly current of arctic temperature winds swept through the room. The three dog demons felt their spines wither and shrink, the feeling of dread replacing all previous emotion and locking thick and heavy in their gut. The sound of trumpets blared in their imagination, the call of death was imminent. A medley of gray and gold eyes dilated in fear, watching timidly as a shadow emerged from a dark crevice in the wall.

The creature swaggered, lumbering closer, fresh from an interrupted slumber.

The baby continued to cry pitifully.

The shadow swept the child off the floor, shooting the trio a furious look that could have skinned dragons for dinner.

Her voice catching fire, she roared-

"ALL OF YOU, _SIT!"_

* * *

 _ **Extra:**_

 _"And for the record," Kagome yawned, turning her back to them as she swayed back into her room, "I planned all of you."_  
 _Inuyasha grumbled into the wooden floor next to his groaning children._  
 _"PLANNED WITH WHO EXACTLY?!"_

* * *

 **A/N:** They all "Sit" because Inuyasha is holding onto them.


	14. Apologies

**APOLOGIES**

 **A/N:** _I missed writing InuKag. There will be a smut companion piece to this with the next chapter, so please skip that chapter if you are not comfortable with NSFW or smut/lemon. I will be changing the rating to these drabbles for that._

 ** _Summary_** **:** She felt him looking at her all day, but she wouldn't be the first to apologize.

 ** _Words_** **:** _1,400_

* * *

Her husband had been watching her all day.

His eyes had been caressing her since she had woken up that morning, his nostrils flaring in alarm when she sat up to watch him quietly. When it was obvious that neither of them was going to say anything to the other, he grunted as he tossed the reed mat away from the entrance to leave their home, leaving a slight chill in his tracks.

 _Well fine, if he wanted to be that way._

It seemed their heated discussion from a few days before was leaking into today and she was getting very good at pretending that she didn't care. She dressed in her warmest robes and began with the day's chores just like any other.

Her feet left imprints in the packed snow, and she traced her footsteps with those that Inuyasha had marked previously. It was stupid, but the small act, her feet meeting where his were before, brought her a bit of peace. It was the closest she had gotten to him since the argument. She continued until the footsteps disappeared into the depths of the forest and she stood there at the awning of the trees. After a few seconds of toying with the idea of confronting his anger, she rolled her eyes and made a sharp left, finding the main patchwork of a street that crossed towards the market.

If he wanted to be this stubborn, she knew how to play that game too.

 _After all, the fight was entirely his fault._

She could visit the homes of men if it meant to treat their injuries, it made _no_ difference that they were single and flirtatious. She knew how to handle herself! And she had told him so, in so many words, laced with venom and anger.

And he had flipped those bitter words right back at her, invisible lashes against her lungs as they took her breath away. She had forgotten how angry he could get, forgotten how easily he could dismantle her confidence.

So she had made sure to let him know he was not to sleep by her side on the bed that night.

And he had chosen not to do so for the following night too. In fact, Inuyasha had chosen to pretend she wasn't real, going through his routine and motions as if she were completely invisible.

But she felt that intense stare of his. She could feel its warm touch from behind her, to the side of her, anywhere she couldn't keep an eye on him.

And she was at least thankful that this winter had made today particularly cold enough to freeze rain, because his gaze set her on _fire_.

* * *

Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips and she shouldered the weight of a heavy basket. She had bought what was left of some small and pitiful strawberries in order to make some jelly. Her stomach hadn't been as stable lately, probably due to how anxious the fight had made her. So she figured, maybe making something warm and gelatin in texture would ease her belly. She sensed her husband nearby again and caught sight of a bright crimson figure.

Kagome quirked an eyebrow in Inuyasha's direction. His line of sight ran into hers again and he promptly turned around to blend into the mass of crowd that was circling the market square.

She shrugged and carried on, taking interest in the tiny blueberries that were probably too small to be priced at what they were but she wasn't in the mood for bargaining. Some busy bodies brushed up against her as they tried to outbid her for the handful, and she sighed.

It was going to be one of those days today.

* * *

She mentally cataloged her goods for the day, and then tucked them away into their appropriate corners. She spilled the contents of her berries into a bowl and reached around for a way to shave down the sugar canes. But her hands weren't cooperating and she was beginning to feel her anxiety eating away at her stomach again. Inuyasha still wasn't home.

Maybe she should just go out and apologize.

She frowned, _even if it means not being sincere about it._

With one last look at her bowl of berries, she threw a thick cover of fur over her shoulders and marched out into the white bliss. She'd continue when she got back, and maybe get some help with the mashing.

She trudged through the trail, hoping that he'd be sulking somewhere nearby and she wouldn't have to be out there for too long, but of course…he was nowhere to be found.

She thought about channeling her senses to sniff him out but she was too moody to bother, and if he wanted to be found, he'd appear.

And then she felt it again.

His eyes on her. Like a hunter on his prey.

Kagome curled her hands into fists and carefully peered around her, turning and twisting to find him.

 _He was out here, goddamnit._

She licked her dry lips and crossed her arms, the fur over her shoulders coming down to her elbows. She'd have to change tactics. Her lips met in a smirk and she closed her eyes.

"Lucky me!" She yelled out into the barren winter wonderland as she leaned against a pine tree, "I get the bed all to myself again tonight!"

"Like hell." With no warning, a familiar hand grabbed her, pushed her against the bark and crushed his mouth to hers.

She knew exactly what he was doing. And while it was a lot better than being stubborn and continuing their pride wars, it made it easy for him to get away with _not_ apologizing.

His free hand caught her leg beneath the knee and raised it. She snaked it over his hip and curled her arms around him. His other hand dipped into the crevice of layers at her top and covered her breast. _Just as if he had the right._

 _We should talk about the fight._ She told herself that as she parted her lips and let his tongue slip into her mouth. He felt as if he somehow belonged here, inside this one small part of her, and she wanted to kiss him forever.

Inuyasha drew back a few inches, not even far enough for her lips to cool in the weather. His eyes never left her mouth, and he kept his hand on her breast.

He looked about ready to say something when a shuffling sound stole their attention and a pocket of snow resting on the branches above them, descended down. Kagome's eyes opened wide just as Inuyasha whisked her away. His hand not leaving her breast and her leg came down as he released it.

They looked at each other again, his arm around her waist, her arms still around his neck, their faces centimeters apart.

"Th-thank you," She breathed against his mouth. And then he started kissing her all over again.

She pressed against him and he muttered a dark curse."We're going home." His voice held the same note of determination she'd heard when he was addressing a demon as he promised death.

Something about the spell of his kisses broke- _maybe when he reluctantly dropped his hand from her breast_ -and suddenly she wanted to talk it out again. "Wait, Inuyasha, I think-"

He dragged her behind him, marching through snow like a man possessed.

"No more thinking, Kagome. You've had me sleeping out in the kitchen for far too goddamn long."

"Now listen here-"

But he cut her off again as he shackled her wrists and pulled her into his arms, sprinting the rest of the way to their warm home.

She couldn't believe it! He couldn't just show up and distract her with his make-out sessions, she had come out looking for him for a reason.

"Inuyasha!" She protested again, and his hold tightened on her.

"Be quiet, or I swear I'll take you right here."

She gasped, her cheeks flushing and a sharp desire slipped into her belly.

He pushed the reed entry as if he were ready to tackle it down, finding his way around their home in the glow of a small burning fire to deposit her onto their futon.

She couldn't have counted the seconds between when she was fully clothed and when they were both half-naked, tangled together.

All she knew- _as his jaw scraped her cheek and whispered her name_ -was that they'd have time for apologies later.

* * *

 **A/N** : Smutty type companion piece to this in the next chapter.


	15. Forgiveness

_**FORGIVENESS**_

 _ **A/N**_ _: This was kinda hard to write, I had to pull from a lot of references. It's one thing to do the dirty, and another to actually write it out and make it make sense lol. Not a full on smut "lemon" but it's getting there. **NSFW**_

 _ **Rating: M**_

* * *

 _He pushed the reed entry as if he were ready to tackle it down, finding his way around their home in the glow of a small burning fire to deposit her onto their futon._

She looked up at him from the space in between her legs where they bent open, the red material of her pants pooling around her ankles, and he regarded her there. His gaze felt like warm syrup pouring right over her heart. He looked cautious, as if he was unsure how she'd react to his gruffness, so before he could lose his courage, Kagome reached for the knot at his pants and pulled him forward.

And that was all the confidence he needed as he braced himself on his palms. His unsteadiness vanishing as he dipped his head forward to yank the white material of her shirt down her shoulders with his teeth.

The next thing she knew, it had been pushed down to her hips and his face was underneath her exposed breasts, kissing her down the middle until his nose met with the tie of her hakama. She gasped and pulled on his hair to bring him up, wanting to engage in one of those slow angry kisses he was so good at. She leaned back far enough to gaze at his stubborn mouth and then tilted her head toward it and closed her eyes. Her lips brushed his, but a strand of her hair was in the way so she moved to push it aside.

Before she could go back to kissing him, he pushed her down and yanked the rest of the pants off her waist.

When her hands reached out to his shoulders again, they were bare. He had stripped his robe off and now his palm was sliding up the inside of her naked leg. Her skin turned to gooseflesh. His molten gold stare caught hers again but she couldn't focus on anything except the way his muscles strained under the maple color of his skin. A lock of white hair curled around his forehead and stuck there with precipitation. He was sweating. She breathed out through her mouth; _she was sweating_.

And it was freezing outside.

His fingers brushed over the velvet crotch of her underwear and he looked like he wanted to say something again, his mouth falling open, but he expressed it through his intense stare instead, drinking her in as he gently began to rub. She lay nearly naked on their futon in the dead of winter, their fireplace already dying, and she should have been cold, _but she was on fire_.

She yanked at his pants, imploring for him to drop them. He ignored her and pulled her gently forward to her knees. Her breasts were in line with his face again and he breathed harshly as they hung heavy in front of him. Her legs remained parted and he continued his slow rubbing, her own breathing growing shallow.

She couldn't stop herself from jerking at his pants again, she wanted him naked and she wanted him naked _now._ If any more time passed by where he wasn't inside of her, he would-

"Don't start this," she begged just before he pushed a careful finger beneath the leg opening of her underwear and slipped it inside of her.

She squeaked and sagged against him. She trembled, shut her eyes against the top of his head, and twitched her hips.

"Don't move," He ordered severely, holding her still, and finding his concentration falling away from him with each little moan that spilled from her lips.

He withdrew, circled, entered. Withdrew again. Another torturous circling. _Entry._

"Oh no…" She whispered, _he was starting it._

He sucked a nipple into his mouth and she dug her nails into his shoulders. Withdrawal. Suck. Circle. Enter. _Suck._

Without further notice, she dug inside his pants and quickly found him, hard and dry, with her fist. He groaned against her breast, the tone of his voice echoing into her, vibrating through her chest.

" _Don't_ -" He seethed as she began to stroke.

He withdrew his finger and slid it through her folds until he found _it_. He rubbed. She sighed, panted, and picked up the pace of her hand.

"Inuyasha…" She whispered, squeezing him softly and smoothing her thumb over the drop of moisture at his head.

He yanked her fingers from him and before she could make a sound of protest he grabbed the back of her thighs and flipped her back down, her spine meeting the soft downy of their mattress.

She looked up and then back down, her sultry gaze passing the plane of muscles at his chest, over his flat abdomen, down to his thick hip bones as they peeked through the red material of his hakama.

"Kagome," He finally said, his voice sharp and controlled, and she snapped her stormy eyes back to his serious face. Violent orbs of amber stole her ability to speak. "Lie still for me."

And then he spread her legs apart.

His face fell to her inner thighs and she closed her eyes, bracing herself when he raised her knees, her breath catching.

At the first gentle suction of his lips, she sobbed- _breaking apart_.

* * *

 **A/N:** _aND THEN THEY HAVE SEx_


	16. Uncle

**UNCLE**

 **A/N:** _I had this drabble stored in my drafts because it needed some major editing, but after looking at it some more, I ended up hardly changing anything. It's a bit longer than my drabble "Sesshomaru Hates" but it's basically the same thing. Sesshomaru being an aloof uncle. Except this time, it's with his niece Kaede._

 ** _Rating: K+_**

* * *

Where the first born had been insufferable but _manageable_ , the second was excruciatingly intolerable and unavoidable at best.

She had picked up on things earlier than her brother had, and she wasn't much for talking. She'd merely stare for long stretches of time and keep you suspended in that gaze, scrutinizing you, observing you as if you were the pages in a book.

Where the first one never learned to crawl or walk before he had learned to run, she was slinking and creeping around the forest floor at six months.

She was quiet and observant, always watching, always _judging._

"Kaede."

The woodland was quiet, the creaking of the logs in a far-off stream louder than her footing, but she smelled very _distinctively_ of tainted lineage, an odor that she would never understand had been etched into his senses for decades.

His announcement went without response.

He felt a sigh creasing just behind his lips but he controlled it and continued walking, hoping his lack of interest would bore her and she'd prattle back to where she originated.

Five steps later, he smelled it again. The scent was approaching. The _stench_.

Sesshomaru finally twisted, lazily eyeing the bushes that were randomly rooted all around him, waiting for the smallest movement.

He stood there, stoic and still for what could have been days, but time had slowed for him since he had unfavorably decided to mingle with humanity. Where in the past, a week could have been a year, now it was seven days. He counted the months and the seasons. He knew the age of all his vexations.

This one in particular for example, was five.

 _There._

In the tree.

He shot forward, his tall form blurring with speed, and soon his hands were full of a groaning quarter-demon.

"How did you know?" She moaned dramatically in his grasp and he set her down carefully, looking down at her while she gazed back up at him with a disappointed glare.

Sesshomaru gave away nothing and continued to move himself further from her, almost floating along the fallen leaves.

She rudely sucked her teeth (a token of her father, he was sure), and regarded her uncle's back before crossing her arms petulantly and taking a seat on a blunt little boulder.

"It was your scent."

She cocked her head at him, curious, always thirsting for knowledge. "Scent?" She parroted the word back at him.

"What you smell like." He answered, although he wished he would have told her the truth. That he was not responsible for her teachings. Despite the fact that he was probably to thank for half the words in her vocabulary already.

"What do I smell like?"

 _Half-breed_ , he should have educated her. He ought to have ridiculed her, reaped pleasure in watching her little heart-shaped face fall with the knowledge that she was of a mixed strain.

But this was one word he had no desire in adding to her growing terminology. And the realization that he actually _cared_ …was tucked away behind a pale indifferent stare.

"You smell like diapers, and chicken feathers."

She flashed a fanged grin, picked all 40 pounds of herself off the ground, and walked towards him quietly.

"You smell like winter." She declared, unprovoked.

There was a time when he smelled of blood. Lots of it.

Sesshomaru hummed quietly as he turned back around, accepting her declaration. A tiny pocket of pride blossomed in his belly. He had recently come down from a valley of snowy peaks. _She had an outstandingly sharp nose._

"Where do your parents think you are?" The child walked swiftly next to him, two of her strides matching one of his long ones.

"With you." She said good-naturally.

The idea that his half-brother and his miko wife had grown to trust him to be alone with their children did not puzzle him, and remarkably enough, it did not irritate him either.

He felt her clamp on to the extension of white fur that trailed behind him, not unlike how another little girl used to do some decades ago.

Where Kenta had babbled with questions, ideas, and assertions, all of which Sesshomaru could verbally dodge or dismiss, Kaede was insistent in her silence.

She goaded him with her solemn gray eyes.

He would later glare daggers at the miko, her matching stormy eyes dancing with mischief as she cited the resemblance between her daughter and him.

"Ridiculous," he would reply, soundlessly disappearing into the night.

But even he- _as the years progressed_ -knew the simple truth.

She, who preferred _hunting_ to courting,

 _Travelling_ to sleeping,

 _Silence_ to conversation,

And she who knew that,

Learning was never about the _gain_ , it was about the _conquest._

His niece was more demon than human, fitting comfortably into the wild, roaming the valley content on the arches of her bare slim feet.

It would be decades until Sesshomaru could fully appreciate the similarity.

What his father had in him, she had in her, and the dawning awareness warmed him, and rocked him like a wave.

And one day, as he tended to her grave in the middle of spring, he stopped in front of her father's tombstone and thanked him.

* * *

 **A/N** : I plan on eventually writing a whole chaptered fic with Kaede and her dealing with the InuKag babies. Including a fic on how they stumbled upon naming their first born daughter Kaede.


	17. Surf

**Surf**

 **A/N:** _This is really odd and makes no sense but you know I'm just…in a…mood._ **_688 words._**

* * *

"What are you asking?"

"I'm asking how you feel about her."

Kikyo's gaze has glossed over with thought as she blinks listlessly at the mangled body on the ground, the limbs spread out and vulnerable, like a doll that has been tossed away. She feels her throat choke with something that threatens to break her apart but she schools the emotions on her face and finally looks away.

"Why are you asking?"

"Curious."

"Then I won't entertain you with an answer."

A chuckle breathes over her head and she's once again reminded by how small she truly is compared to his monstrous form. She thinks that if she were real- _human, and whole_ -she'd have bile threatening to cough from her lips, but alas she is not. She's a ghost, and she cannot even remember the feel of saliva in her mouth.

"Do you envy her?"

She had planned on fading away again, was already longing for the view of the shore as she stood invisible upon the beach and watched the foaming swirls of the sea, but she was staring again into the empty steel pools of her reincarnation's eyes.

 _Dead._

A laugh curls desperately behind her pale lips- _did she envy her?_ Did she envy the girl that was born into a world without plague or disease, a girl that married the first and last love of her life, carried three of his beautiful children, owned land fat with singing flowers, pregnant cattle, and died quickly-not at the hands of her lover?

Did she _envy_ her? Ha.

"Of course I do."

" **Honesty** \- now that's a new color." He comes around to stand next to her and admires the lifeless body that lies innocently ahead of them. "Looks terrible on you though."

Kikyo feels something spiritual brimming past her finger-tips, a real feeling-not just a mentally sculpted one-this one is natural and _raw,_ and it's starting to burn. She realizes with terrible whiplash what it is.

The gentle bell of tiny foot-steps as they crush fallen leaves beneath them, ricochet into her ears like blaring sirens. She knows whose feet they belong to, she doesn't have to guess. They approach quickly, and she knows that they will not find what they came looking for. It is lost forever.

 _Unless-_

"Don't save her, Kikyo. Don't make us unhappy like that."

"Mama?" A small voice chirps quizzically nearby and Kikyo thinks back to the ocean. The sun. The breeze.

 _Why did she come?_

Has fate dropped her here again, merely for this? Was she born to be slave to this woman's life, even in death?

She fists hands over the white-hot power that is leeching from her like snakes seeking home, and takes a step towards Kagome Higurashi's motionless form.

The dead man behind her grunts knowingly, a sneer stretching across his face.

Placing a fading palm against a cold cheek she whispers-

 _"_ _Wake up, Kagome."_

Long midnight lashes flutter open and she vanishes like the surf.

* * *

 _What do I feel for her?_

* * *

"Mama!"

"Oh!" Kagome tries to bend forward from her horizontal position, but the weight of an elephant riding a bus sits on her chest. " _Oh."_

Her oblivious child flops on her stomach with an inquisitive look, her gray eyes searching for answers in her mother's reflecting ones.

"Are you o'tay?

"Yes," Kagome reaches back and rubs the back of her skull, "I must have fallen…" She looks up at the cliff that towers over them and flinches involuntarily-remembering with certainty that she did indeed take a tumble.

"Do you want me to get Papa?"

"No little bird, let's go home."

And as they traverse through the forest once more, hand in hand, Kagome feels a chill slip down the back of her neck, a cold reminder that someone was watching.

She turns and sees nothing but smiles nonetheless.

* * *

"You're a disappointment."

"Shut up."

"It would have made for an interesting story, ' _single father Inuyasha raising a basket case of kids'_ , you've stolen this from me."

Kikyo ignores him and feels a familiar happiness warm the awning pit of her stomach as a little girl is carried in the arms of her living mother.

* * *

 _I feel everything._

* * *

A/N: This is Kikyo and Naraku talking to each other. I know it's weird but I eventually want to write a small comedy of Kikyo and Naraku venturing around the ghost world together.


	18. Return

**Return**

A/N: Just the way I think Kagome's return would have gone. 2900 words. (posted to tumblr first and then made adjustments as necessary)

* * *

Things didn't go right back into the way things were before; although if she were honest to herself, Kagome didn't even know how things were supposed to be going anyway.

Especially in regards to the half-demon that currently eyed her from across the courtyard.

The hug at the well was important, but brief. Once Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and the children appeared, it became a group endeavor, with Inuyasha taking a moment to step back and let them have their turn. A look of petulance had crossed his features then, and Kagome barely caught it before it was washed away into a complacent grin.

"Kagome, I can't believe it!" Sango exclaimed, her arm still looped around her waist, with one of her toddlers creeping around the length of her leg to see the mysterious woman. Shippo was snug and unrelenting, his arms circling her neck in an almost vice-like grip.

"I can hardly believe it myself," Kagome said softly, darting her eyes from the group in front of her to the half-demon lagging behind. She looked down at the mirroring faces of shock below her, "Don't tell you me…are these your kids?" She knelt down to inspect the twins, both of them eyeing her strangely with big brown orbs.

Miroku nudged them toward her, "Kotori and Hikari."

"Ka'ome?" One of them edged out experimentally.

Miroku bent down with a gentle hand on the head of the one that spoke, opening his mouth to correct her carefully, "Kagome."

"Kagome!" This time in unison.

The priestess nodded with a teary smile, jerking her head back up to the parents, "They're beautiful."

"Indeed," Miroku smiled proudly. "And if the new one's face is any indication, they're all taking wonderfully after their mother."

Sango flushed with a wry smile at the compliment and turned the sleeping baby over to their friend. He smelled of new things and life and lavender incense. Kagome felt a well of emotion lodge in her throat as Sango said- "And this is, Shinsho."

* * *

Once they had finally made it to the village and Kagome had caught up with all the new members of the family, there was a feast. Kaede had all but demanded it, pressing the council and chiding any elders who hadn't recognized the bizarre clothed-girl.

"This is Kagome!" Kaede waved the stick that she now used to walk around in. "Don't ye remember?"

There was no need for further discussion; the term Kagome was not one thrown around precariously. It was revered as the name for the heroine that helped saved them all. Along with the half-demon, the monk, and the demon-slayer.

The villagers were only too happy to oblige the returned priestess, scattering the streets with music and color and heaping spoonfuls of rice. It was a small village when Kagome last visited, but it had grown since then.

Inuyasha patrolled quietly behind her, and although she could never catch him doing it, she could feel his guarded eyes locked onto her back fiercely every time she turned around.

It was awkward; not fully knowing what her next move should be. She loved him- that was something she could not deny and had all but embraced before she took the last leap into the well. She was certain he loved her too, except they had been apart for so long, she wasn't sure what was still deemed comfortable and what was not.

It was like a road through a dark forest she had taken before, but with forgotten directions.

She ditched the worry to the back of her mind, keeping all negativity at bay in light of how truly elated she was to be back. To feel the Earth five hundred years younger all around her. Strange how in relation to the age of the planet, five-hundred years was just a blink in history, and yet society had done so much to change it in the coming centuries.

The air was clean, and it rushed into her lungs like a song of purity and warmth. The familiar aromas of meat burning, and clay being washed, and the call of wildlife, replaced the buzzing of vehicles, the blaring of sirens and the shouts of city life.

Her skin was alive and thankful, her heart beating rhythmically in her chest like it knew she was finallyhome.

"Kagome, dance with me!" Shippo called out to her with two hands cupped over his mouth in the midst of a crowd, jumping from one short foot to the other, a ridiculous smile on his face. "Come on!"

"I'm coming!" Kagome giggled, twirling over to him and closing her eyes as she spun in tune to the beating of the drums. A large fire moved with its fingers to the sky, snapping and spitting in the center of the courtyard. Dozens were singing and moving all around her in circles, sweaty foreheads and looping limbs. Every once in a while someone would bump into her and bow lamentably, and she would have to embarrassedly beg them not to apologize with a frenzied look.

She felt hands on the bare skin of her arms and looked behind her sharply, hoping to see golden eyes but seeing dark violet instead. "It's good to have you back, Kagome." Miroku smiled genuinely at her and then caught the look of disappointment in her eyes, "Ah. He'll come around. Probably waiting for it all to be dream."

Kagome bit her lip, suddenly uncomfortable with how transparent she was. Her obvious sentiments towards the half-demon seemed to not have gone unnoticed, and she wondered if the object of her attention had seen it as well. And if so, the fact that he was acting so distant worried her further.

She felt the tug of Shippo on her leg and decided to shrug it off with a dry laugh, pushing the monk backwards with a finger. Miroku had a happy look on his face as he let go of her, reaching out to his wife who was making her way through the cluster of people.

Her eyes met with Kagome's and they shared another look of delight and relief.

Kagome had known she missed Sango severely; known it the second she sat alone in a lunchroom on her first day of school, waiting for her trail of high-school friends and wishing she could be sitting out on a field instead, watching Sango wax her boomerang and listening quietly to her tell stories of her father. But she had never truly come to appreciate how deep those feelings were until she had finally seen that glitter of pink brushing the top of those eyelids again. She was family to her and always had been.

When Sango reached them, Kagome unceremoniously threw herself at her, this time with more familiarity than before. "I'm so happy to be here," Kagome whispered tightly.

The woman held her tight and had tears threatening to fall as she replied with a resolve in her tone that could not be tested, "Me too, Kagome."

The whole show was awfully ridiculous and dramatic but neither cared as they fell into fits of laughter between tears in each other's arms.

* * *

Kagome couldn't help seeking him out, at this point it was almost like second nature.

The festival had died down, those too drunk to walk home falling asleep where they stood. Miroku and Sango had been whispering to themselves conspiringly and had long since disappeared into the shadows. Shippo was the only one left with Kagome but soon enough even he nodded off towards Kaede's hut.

The fire was alone with her, crackling softly into the night.

Kagome looked around for what she hoping to find, and without having to search for very long- found it, with his back against a tree.

What was surprising to her at first was how he was sitting on the ground instead of up in the branches, but that thought soon fell from her mind as she neared him and saw the burning intensity in his eyes as he gazed at her openly.

She stood a little far away, unsure and feeling stupid for it. They had hugged like lost lovers separated by the years just that morning, and she was _hesitating_.

He was watching her and when their eyes met again he gave her a slight nod in acknowledgement, almost as if it were his way of coaxing her closer.

She smiled in response, no longer feeling uncertain as she made her way over to him. His arms dug a little deeper into his sleeves at her approach.

"Hey," he mumbled, looking at her as she braced a hand against the tree trunk and took a seat next to him.

"Hi."

The two of them fell silent, just looking at one another for a moment, before Inuyasha ducked his head and gestured to the fire some distance away, still blaring brightly. "Had fun?"

Kagome tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and recalled the way her friends had gathered around her, "Yeah…Might've had more fun if _someone_ had joined in though..."

"Don't know how to dance," he said wryly, catching her implication, and she didn't miss the color that blemished his cheeks.

Kagome felt herself relax slightly, before she laid her head back against the wood and breathed in deeply, suppressing a yawn.

Inuyashed gave her a side glance and then pulled it away, "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Can't sleep." She nibbled on her bottom lip and then sighed, "Too excited, I guess."

Inuyasha nodded in the direction of the bodies littering the ground by the fire, "Doesn't seem like anyone else is having that problem."

She giggled quietly and brushed her cheek on her shoulder, "They're probably just beat."

"You ain't?"

Kagome caught the hint of concern in his tone and felt another smile tug at her lips. She shook her head and crossed her legs in front of her, "I'm fine. I'm used to staying up late for exams."

Inuyasha met her eyes at that, looking at her like she was a page in a book he was studying. It was concentrated, a way she remembered he used to do sometimes before. It made her feel warm, and back then: also confused; unable to define the other emotion that curdled in her gut unknowingly.

Although now she could put a name to what she had been feeling.

He looked away and unshuffled his arms from their sleeves, bringing his knees to his chest, and splayed his hands against them.

"You going back?"

His question was so quiet, she barely heard it. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground, his face turned away from her as if he were ashamed.

"No."

Inuyasha swallowed and nodded, still not looking at her.

She drew a breath and spoke more insistently, "I chose to stay here. I'm not leaving."

He looked thoughtful, as if he was taking in her words and putting meaning to them. She noticed him deflate, his shoulders released from tension and his arms came down to his sides as he sat up a little bit straighter.

Then he turned his eyes to meet her with a relieved twitch of his lips, not quite a smile but might as well be, "Good."

Inuyasha smiling was a new thing to her. Something that she hadn't thought of a lot, for whenever she placed him in her memory, it was always with a characteristic scowl or frown, or smirk.

This was new and also nice.

The warmth in his expression relaxed her and she smiled back at him, before shuffling closer until their arms were touching. She felt him tense up for a second before falling back into his previous pose. He anxiously began digging a groove into a dirt with a nearby stick on the opposite side of her. Another stretch of silence fell over them.

Kagome played with her fingers before deciding to open up about something she had no real intention of letting him know about before that point; "I tried the well every seven days. Every Friday after school I'd come home and jump into it. I think I wore my ankles down, because by the tenth time, I wasn't able to jump into it anymore. I had to climb down with the ladder and jump when I was nearly at the bottom." She sighed with a pallid smile and closed her eyes, "I never stopped trying, even though I started to feel real silly about it."

Inuyasha had stopped playing with the stick and sat very still, listening to her intently. Before she could start again, she saw the way his gaze landed on her ankles with precise focus.

"You okay?" He questioned with a tone Kagome couldn't place. Somewhere between tender and angry.

"Yeah, they're good now. I toughened them up." She laughed and this seemed to do enough for him so she continued.

"This morning I went out, and was about to give up." She looked down at the blue fabric of her skirt, "Three years doesn't seem very long, but it goes by slow when you're jumping into a well like clockwork. Then I looked into the bottom of it, and I just…couldn't. It felt like I was…saying goodbye. And I couldn't say goodbye to you. Not yet. Not ever."

His heart felt like it had stopped in his chest. When it seemed she was done talking he nodded to her and cleared his throat. "Three days."

"Huh?"

"I jumped in every three days."

She blew out a whistle, "You got me beat!"

"Keh," he scoffed and blinked slowly as he turned to look at her with a smirk. "I always got you beat, woman."

Kagome nudged him playfully and then felt a cold breeze run down the hillside and seep into her bones. She shivered and watched as goosebumps rose the hair on her skin. She rubbed her hands over her bare arms, and Inuyasha drew his attention to it.

She shrugged, "I didn't exactly have time to pack any sweaters."

Inuyasha frowned before he pushed himself forward and tugged off the fire-rat robe. Kagome quickly shook her head, "No, you don't have to- I'm sure Kaede has…"

But he had already draped it messily over her and was leaning back against the tree before she even had time to finish her statement. He sat there in his pants and white sleeveless undershirt, emphasizing the curve of his muscles beneath.

She probably looked ridiculous in the oversized robe, and she remembered with recoil the last time she'd worn it like a dress. The smell of the forest and sun overwhelmed her and she closed her eyes for a second to bury her face in it.

Inuyasha looked over at her, amused and smug all at once, "You alright?"

Kagome gulped and tugged the fabric around her defensively, "Aren't you cold now?"

He rolled his eyes and she could already hear the words fly from his mouth before he said it, "I'm part demon, remember? Or did you forget things in those three years?"

"Doesn't mean you can't get cold."

"Keh."

"Oh yeah?" Kagome tugged at his arm, noticing the gooseflesh that trailed up to his shoulders. "Then explain this?"

Inuyasha carefully yanked it away and was red in the face, not willing to let her know it wasn't the cold that was doing that.

Kagome thought about something and then pressed tight against him, deciding that the fire-rat would be big enough for the both of them. "Here, we'll share."

He went still again and looked increasingly uncomfortable as Kagome resituated the robe so that it was draped over the both of them, covering them efficiently. Inuyasha shifted awkwardly and she couldn't look away from the blatant blush that ran up the back of his neck all the way to his face.

Kagome chuckled at his obvious discomfort and flashed him a grin. He looked at her, not entirely smiling back, but his eyes softened and his amber gaze held her motionless.

After a moment Kagome looked away and rested her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes and listening to the fine beat of his breathing along with the ancient calls of the forest.

His body relaxed and she could feel the tension leaving him as he gave into her touch and put his head on hers.

"Kagome."

His voice was quiet, and tentative.

She didn't move, but she opened her eyes half-way to listen to him when she spoke, "Yeah?"

There was a pause that felt like an eternity before he opened his mouth again, "I'm glad you're here."

The openness in his statement clutched at her heart, and she could feel it rattling wildly in her chest. It had surprised her, how vulnerable and candid his voice could sound.

She felt her fingertips brush carefully against the back of his hand that lay between them. She hesitated, before allowing them to run over it again although this time with slightly more pressure, slightly more resolve. His hand remained still by his side, and for a moment Kagome felt foolish. A rolling wave of embarrassment flooded her and she wanted to fall asleep.

Had she misread the signals? Had the three years changed his feelings? Had she even known his feelings before?

Then she felt the back of his hand nudge hers slightly.

She bit her lip and turned her hand over, slipping it into his, feeling a burst of happiness and reprieve when his mindful fingers intertwined with hers; the way they had when she had confessed her feelings over the lip of the well so long ago.

She felt his hand squeeze hers and she breathed in slowly.

Kagome smiled, now realizing her earlier worries were wasted time. She still wasn't sure what was to follow, but it didn't matter.

Nothing mattered in this moment, but his hold on her hand, and his head on her head.

Kagome answered his squeeze with one of her own, and they slept.


	19. Inuyasha Vows

**Inuyasha's Vows**

 **A/N** : _I don't think Inuyasha is an overly romantic man and I think he sucks with words, but sometimes I like to think of a strong not-romantic man crumbling to pieces because all he needs to do is think of his love and he turns into a poet. So this is just one really lame ridiculous version of that._ _ **700 words**_

* * *

Kagome wants me to write… _vows_ or something.

Actually she didn't tell _me_ she wants me to, she told _Sango_ she wants me to and she told Miroku whom cornered me at the market three days ago and told me that I _had_ to do it.

To which I promptly said _no_ , because in what fuckin' world am I going to be sitting down putting words on paper to describe my feelings for my soon to be wife?

Apparently this fuckin world, because I'm sitting here on the fence post of our soon to be farmhouse, writing all this down.

So here goes nothing.

And by nothing, I hope you do expect absolutely _nothing._

Because I'm crumpling up this piece of paper and throwing it over my shoulder as we speak. It hits the ground and I don't even turn to watch it tumble away with the wind. Let it have it. I'm not cut out for this crap.

I'm not-… _I can't!_

Alright.

I got another paper. Miroku gave me a stack of them. Probably because he knew I'd be crumbling up a lot of papers.

Let's try this again…

 _So Town Priestess:_

 _To my soon to be wife:_

 _Woman:_

Scratch that.

* * *

 ** _Kagome,_**

 _ **I'm not good at this. And you…well you** know **that. And I really really like that you know that.**_

 ** _I really like a lot of things now that I'm thinking about it._**

 ** _I like that you know how I don't like spicy foods, or bitter fruits, or chocolate._**

 ** _I like that you still hold my hand guiding me through things even though you know I already know how to get to those places._**

 ** _I like that you made me a scarf for winter three years ago, even after I told you I don't get cold._**

 _ **I like that you don't take any of my shit-** but oi don't let that get to your head!_

 ** _I like how right it feels when you're on my back. I like the way you giggle when I go really fast, and the way your arms get really tight over my neck when we go really high._**

 ** _I like how strong you are. You don't even know how strong you are. I like that too- mostly because it makes it really easy for me to show off and take care of you._**

 _ **I like taking care of you. I like when you take care of me too. I like that you** like **to take care of me. Or at least that you pretend to.**_

 ** _I like how you glare at people when they're saying bad things about me. I like calming you down and stopping you from throwing insults back. I like planning pranks to play on them with you afterwards._**

 ** _I like your eyes, I like your nose, I like your hair. Even when there's mud and leaves and sticks mixed all up in it- and I found this out very recently when we tumbled through the rain together and all I wanted to do was kiss you after._**

 ** _I really like the little angry pouty noises you make when you don't get your way._**

 ** _I like the happy sounds you make when you do._**

 ** _I like that anything could be scattered or broken and you can put it back together. Including me._**

 ** _I like this feeling that grows really heavy in my chest when I think about you._**

 ** _I like knowing that I would know you in any life. This one, the last one, the next._**

 ** _I like feeling you so close against me that it's like we're just one creature instead of two._**

 ** _I like that you teach me about the stars and the sky and the 'universe' and I like looking at you and feeling the same way about you that you do about me._**

 _ **I like how g'damn easy these lame words come out of me the moment I even say your** name **.**_

 ** _I like your name._**

 ** _I like how my life doesn't even feel real without you in it._**

 _I like loving you._

 ** _I like loving you, a lot actually._**

 ** _And I hope I can make you as happy as there is light in space._**

 ** _So…thanks for marrying me._**

* * *

"I-Inuyasha," Kagome gasps and clutches at her bridal kimono between shaking fingers, unsuccessfully holding back tears with a smile as wide as the world is round. "Th-there's…there's no light in space."

His lips purse in an indignant pucker, tears prickling at the corner of his eyes, "Woman, you know what I mea-"

But she seals his lips with a kiss, and they sink into each other like rocks colliding to make sand, with echoing chants and cheers in the background; wholesome and beautiful and so _so_ right.


	20. Growth

**Inuvember: Growth**

 **A/N:** hahaha give me any excuse to write InuKag, am I right or am I right?

 _ **Summary:** Inuyasha isn't much of a talker but maybe eventually… **1400 words.**_

* * *

Inuyasha has a timbre to his voice that makes Kagome wonder vaguely what her name would sound like slipping from his mouth. A small voice at the back of her head mentions off handedly how inappropriate the thought is, but she pays no mind to it.

She thinks about tricking him into saying it, but can't come up with a single plausible scenario that wouldn't wash her in embarrassment.

So he'll just be talking, about how much he doesn't want to be in her presence, or how much he doesn't want to be " _responsible over a stupid girl who can't even hold a bow_ ", and her thoughts will crawl over towards parts of her brain that she hasn't yet even discovered. She's thinking about the way he could say her name, _Kagome_ \- so low and slow, drawling it out with a rasp in his throat.

She's thinking that she should find a way home as soon as possible before the Feudal Era turns her anymore mad.

* * *

"Kagome."

She blinks up at him in shock, a sliver of delight dropping into her stomach like a light bulb turning on in a dark room.

It wasn't low or slow, or even raspy in the least.

But something entirely new, something entirely relaxed and comfortable and suddenly Kagome doesn't care much for the other ways in which she wanted to hear her name come from his lips, all she wants is that tone one more time.

Inuyasha is oblivious as always, and somehow this too is something she's pleased to be in the company of.

"You said my name for the first time," she smiles a victorious grin and he tries to push it from the front of his mind.

He makes a note to try and not say it too often.

* * *

He has a habit of being vocal about everything that brings him even the slightest discomfort. The human villages, the sleeping, the trips to the well, the baths, the insistence that they use the main roads to travel.

Kagome, after suffering a band-aid peeling from the blister at the back of her heel, asks him bitingly if there is anything that doesn't make him angry.

"Yeah," he puffs out, curt and cutting. "Not being around you."

She almost feels a ridiculous laugh bubble up from her ribs, but she announces a deserved _'sit'_ instead.

* * *

Kagome doesn't want to admit she's jealous of Kikyo.

Doesn't want to admit it because jealousy makes her feel stupid. It makes her feel like she's misinterpreting all the wrong signals; misunderstanding Inuyasha entirely.

But she can't help the way it transforms her from cheerful teenage girl, to a woman wronged.

"I'll go with Miroku." Kagome declares with a face made of stone. "Sango, do you mind going with Inuyasha?"

"Not at all, Kagome." Sango says carefully. Knowing there's a more underlying reason she's asking. "We meet back here?"

"You want to split up?" Inuyasha asks with a layer of frustration. "Whatever."

"Whatever." Kagome echoes as she turns to leave, gesturing for Miroku to follow.

* * *

They don't see each other for almost the entire day, the moon turning to sun before they finally get to meet up again. Miroku and Kagome return to camp looking unusually out of breath- spattered blood dry on their clothing and missing their weapons, abandoned in an effort to escape with their heads attached.

Inuyasha runs over to them, speaking only to Miroku, asking what happened on their run and if there was anything left chasing them. All the while sneaking glances at Kagome in between words, so quickly anyone could miss it.

"We were ambushed, with Naraku's bees not far behind." Miroku explains with a sheepish scrunch of his shoulders. "But Kagome's amazing aim as always was our saving grace, and they're not after us any longer. We made it out but-"

"I lost my bow." Kagome finishes, trying and failing to mask her heartbreak.

"And my staff." Miroku adds, obvious that he has already tried his best to alleviate her sorrow from the loss of her first longbow.

Miroku sees Sango peering behind Inuyasha with a pinch of worry above her brow, and rushes to be by her side again.

Then it's just the two of them; Kagome's pulse racing as he says nothing- but also makes no effort to leave.

She is so attuned to him that she sees everything. Every breath. Every glance. Every time his hand twitches and reaches as if to touch her and then makes back to his waist.

When she finally gets tired of his silent antics, she breathes a sigh of disappointment and brushes past him.

He grabs her wrist and tugs her towards him softly, "I don't want to split up again."

It's both a statement and a question- loaded with something hidden than neither of them had yet to acknowledge to each other- and it finally proved too much for her to ignore. She couldn't bear to misinterpret another signal.

She turns to face him, and leans in close enough to make him uncomfortably warm, "Why do you care, Inuyasha?"

* * *

They don't talk about it later, and after a short three day trip to the modern world, Kagome is back to feeling herself. Smiling and laughing, and acting as if she didn't even know the definition of jealousy.

But Inuyasha carries himself differently. As if he wants space between them. He reverts to commonplace grunts for responses, stuffs his arms into his sleeves and is quick to lead far away ahead of them; but with one ear always trained behind him just in case.

Sango and Miroku are observers as always, in the background and trading bets on who breaks first.

* * *

It's Inuyasha, and Miroku owes Sango a brand new set of daggers.

And it's not a sorry, but Kagome treats it as one, because Inuyasha bringing her a brand new varnished longbow made with the most beautiful yew wood that she had ever seen is as close as it's going to get.

"Thank you so much, Inuyasha." She replies breathlessly.

"Keh."

* * *

Sometimes she can get him to tell her a few things here and there. An improvement from the months prior where asking him to explain anything was like pulling teeth from a tiger.

He's still as vocal as ever when he's disgruntled, but now he's vocal about other things too.

And whenever possible, he tries to use her name. Mental notes thrown away.

 _"Kagome, watch out-"_

 _"Kagome, come with me-"_

 _"Kagome, just stay here-"_

 _"Kagome, this village is-"_

And each time she thinks she hears a new note to his tone. A deeper more comforting intimacy that she might just be picturing in her head.

But then he starts to tap her hand with his when he needs something from her, or he'll sneak up behind her and she'll lean back to listen to whatever it is he wants to communicate. She'll feel his breath curl around her neck like jewelry, and she thinks he relishes in her just as much as she relishes in him.

Then one day he says her name, quietly, a whisper that she still somehow hears- _"Kagome."_ -low and slow, and drawling it out in a rasp like a match striking against concrete; setting her on fire.

It floats across the space between them. Making her eyes snap with a sweltering heat.

He keeps saying it as their lips collide in a sloppy mismatched kiss.

And kiss her he does, hard and rushed, so fast that she's too stunned to register the way his thumbs reach up to stroke against her cheeks.

They ease into the sensation of their lips molding over each together, and anything she was holding drops to the floor in a clatter.

 _"Kagome."_

She slips her hands into his hair and pulls as the moonlight spills through her fingers.

 _"Kagome."_

* * *

After that it's like a dam has broken loose, and the words escape his mouth like prisoners of war.

He tells her everything, from the beginning to the end, and he's honest and he's clear as water.

He begins to share secrets with her as they lay together under the shade of a tree in the night.

Lying face to face, Kagome leans in closely to whisper that she thinks _Miroku and Sango are onto them_. All he can really do is _laugh_ because he can't believe he's reached this point with a girl so perfect, kissing her with an ease so incomprehensible that it rides out of him into another deep chuckle.

And when Kagome asks him _what's so funny-_ can you believe it: he just _tells_ her.


	21. Sleeping

**Sleeping**

 **AKA:** _How many different times can Sanko write the InuKag reuinion fic? I'm sorry I just have so many scenarios! And I need to write them all…_ ** _681 words._**

* * *

When Kagome came back through the well, Inuyasha goes to sleep with her that night.

It's not planned. It wasn't like they had even talked about it- of course he wouldn't, he barely could break out six words to her the whole day _("What have you been up to?")_ and he was lucky to even get that much out past his quivering lips.

But once everyone began to hobble to their homes well past dusk: Inuyasha and Kagome get up, start walking side by side, and when they get to the little shamble of a hut that he had constructed for himself, despite him fully meaning to deposit her for the night and _leave,_ he just… _doesn't._

She doesn't even ask him. She lifts the crudely woven mat, takes his hand, and leads him in. Allows it to close behind her. Cuts out the moonlight.

He's stiff like a board. Awkward and daunted. Transparently uncertain about whether he should be there. Transparently uncertain about what to do with his limbs, hands and elbows.

She's not too keen on what to do either; she'd only slept with him a handful of times in her bed at the shrine, and even then it was a desperate-to-find-sleep affair, and not one full of longing and relief and finally-he's-real-this-is _-real_. The futon on the floor is just big enough to fit them both, so it's not like they're crammed into each other, but its close enough accommodations that they can't exactly stay on fully separated sides.

But they don't want to anyway.

 _Three years._

He was sure he would never see her again. She was sure she'd never see him again. They've been through the seven circles of hell, and then thrown into worlds where they could never possibly meet. She'd been through the cold reality of an era that could never understand her, he'd been through the nightmare of losing her.

And now he's _here._

This aloof, beautiful, uncertain half-demon man, lying so close to her in the obscurity and smelling of pine and sweat and familiar (so familiar) robes that she could identify anywhere even if she could never hope to define it.

And she doesn't ever want him to leave.

She looks at the back of his head and smiles, able to make out the dark lines of his ears as they stand honed in on her every movement.

Gathering her courage, she swallows and whispers, _"It's okay."_

He freezes, then sighs, and she hears him turning to face her. _Feels_ him as his breath rolls over her face like a welcoming breeze.

She repeats it and says, _"I want you to stay,"_ and he gradually relaxes, almost like he'd been holding his breath underwater. Like the only solace he could ever hope to find in this life was her approval. She sits up to undo the cardigan around her shoulders but she senses his fidgeting anxiety, so she lies back down and tucks her hands under her chin. She's grown a habit of making herself small when she sleeps, and she suspects it's in part a from of defense from traveling in a dangerous war riddled era, and part because she's utilized it as a method to cope when she _wasn't_ \- but right now it doesn't feel like either of those things.

It just feels like the _right_ thing to be small, when he's so _not._

He feels _big_ and solid and safe, and she wants it to saturate her again, the way it used to.

At some point his heavy hand settles over the arch of her waist. Her bare leg nestles between his. They gravitate towards each other and it becomes a full body hug- one that's been years coming. She feels his form tremble around her, and listens quietly as a single wet intake of air brushes past her ears. She closes her eyes against his chest, and nests her face beside his heart.

It still doesn't feel completely easy, but time and distance have proven themselves overwhelmingly malleable; thus they mold into each other like streams of water meeting for the sea.

Then She sleeps.

And so does He.


End file.
